Brain Teasers
Navel Oranges
Situation
Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.Situation
Cut-my-own-throat Dabney was trying to convince Bob to buy his interests in an orange orchard concern. He told Bob, "My partners and I cornered the market on one of the two existing genetic lines of navel oranges, but I need to cash out to start another venture in airplanes. All I'm asking for is ten million dollars, and that's cutting my own throat!"
"It still sounds a little strange to me," Bob replied.
"Well, here, try this," the slick salesman said, handing an orange to Bob. "This is one of our oranges. You can see that it's nice and big and really juicy. And, if I cut it open," he continued, cutting the orange in half, "you can see that there are no seeds. My partners and I bought the rights to this variety of naval oranges from a multinational conglomerate."
Bob took one of the orange halves and took a bite. It tasted very good and did have no seeds. As he stood there chewing, he got a thoughtful look on his face. As soon as he swallowed his bite, he exclaimed, "You're a liar and a crook! Get out of my face and never come around here again!"
What made Bob so sure that Cut-my-own-throat Dabney was a crook?
"It still sounds a little strange to me," Bob replied.
"Well, here, try this," the slick salesman said, handing an orange to Bob. "This is one of our oranges. You can see that it's nice and big and really juicy. And, if I cut it open," he continued, cutting the orange in half, "you can see that there are no seeds. My partners and I bought the rights to this variety of naval oranges from a multinational conglomerate."
Bob took one of the orange halves and took a bite. It tasted very good and did have no seeds. As he stood there chewing, he got a thoughtful look on his face. As soon as he swallowed his bite, he exclaimed, "You're a liar and a crook! Get out of my face and never come around here again!"
What made Bob so sure that Cut-my-own-throat Dabney was a crook?
Answer
As Bob chewed, he was thinking about the fact that, since navel oranges don't have seeds, no new trees could be grown. Then he remembered back to his college botany course and how the professor told them that all navel oranges in the world come from one original tree. In the 19th century an orange tree was found in Brazil that produced fruit with no seeds. Buds were taken from that tree and grafted onto others, and the same process was used to spread the seedless oranges throughout the world. Remembering this, Bob knew that there is only one variety of navel orange, so Dabney couldn't have cornered the market on a different variety.Hide Answer Show Answer
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