Brain Teasers
The Vase Bet
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
A man bet a store owner $500 that he could balance a [the store owner's] vase on his head and walk 200 meters. The store owner agreed because it was so completely obvious he could not. He grinned and walked only 1 foot before the vase fell. The store owner smiled and laughed as he accepted the money from the man. But, the man was grinning the biggest smile a person would ever see. Why?
Answer
The guy had bet his friends $2000 that he could break the store owner's vase and not only would the store owner not mind, but he would be happy about it.Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
That's a great one! But it's kinda hard to reach that conclusion with only so much information given.
hmmm. yes, any vulcan would agree.
not bad, but the conclusion isn't attainable without knowing anything else about the situation.
not bad.. but it should have been posted in a different category.. I figured the vase cost more than $500 and thats why the guy was grinning... oh well
i thought the same as osgoodelaw but its still good!!
=¬)
=¬)
he bet his friends he'd brake the vase and the store owner would be happy about it, he didnt say he'd give him 500$ for it.
lame ver. of the quinten tarento or whatever joke from that movie~!
Or the answer could of been that the guy was in a wheelchair or couldn't walk for some reason and he was happy that he walked as far as he did!
I think if he only would have walked another 656 more feet that he would have kept the $500. He had already balanced it on his head so the fact that he dropped it was irrelevant. He merely then needed to walk the remaining distance.
Nice, but it should be a Situation, not a Logic.
This teaser comes from a joke told in the movie Desperado with Antonio Benderas and Selma Hayek. Only the joke had to do with a man behaving badly at a bar...
Thats pretty good. I thought maybe the vase cost a lot more money and he was happy because he didn't have to pay the real cost of it...but the real answer is better!
ok, technically he just said he would put the vase on his head and walk 200 meters but didn't say anything about not letting it fall off his head. But it was still a good one.
I thought the vase was more than $500.
cool but this was origanly a joke called the perfesionall gambler about some one pissing on the wall in the bar so i got it right.
Jul 21, 2002
Another answer could have been that the vase was one of only two in the world, and the man had the other one. If he destroyed this one, his vase would be more valuble, because it would be unique. Good teaser though.
i would have done the same thing
That's an old joke though
Equivalently:
The vase was worth more than $500, and it fell into his waiting hands.
The vase was worth more than $500, and it fell into his waiting hands.
I thought the guy was happy because he had walked like his first steps or something, but this answer makes more sense. Very clever!
Its an old Joke, how do you logic teasers get put in logic, they are always trick, seemingly.
Sorta like betting your buddy a quarter you can drink his can of coke without opening it. You get a 50cent drink and he gets a quarter.
The guy was happy because he had no legs but he could walk! I think thats better
I have to try this sometime!
The Teaser is interesting, as all teasers are, but no one could ever surmise the ending or why the man would be foolish to just give away money, without something else being afoot.
Very easy, but fun.
Another option would be to say that he didn't say he would do them simultaneously.
Balance the vase on head for any time at all and THEN walk 200 meters.
Balance the vase on head for any time at all and THEN walk 200 meters.
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