Brain Teasers
Count Your Fate!
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 is very bad at counting. He starts to count but gets confused and drops dead. What has happened?
Hint
It may have happened in the long distant past.Answer
He is taking part in a duel. He has been told to walk ten paces, turn and fire his pistol. However, he miscounts and is shot in the back and killed.Hide Hint Show Hint Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
I thought maybe he had just pulled the pin out of a hand grenade. But then I guess he wouldn't "drop" dead. Well, he might drop in many places...
I don't imagine being shot in the back is considered the same as "dropped dead".
Thanks for your comments guys! If a bullet hit the right place in a person's back they could drop down dead.
There are too many possible answers for this teaser..
I agree ^
I somewhat agree that there are many answers, but honestly, after reading the hint, duel immediately came to my mind. Good riddle.
If you think there are too many answers, at least suggest some alternatives!
Given the "long distant past" hint, I thought he might have been a less successful version of Josephus (search the "Josephus problem" for details - basically, Josephus and one of his companions arranged to be the last two killed in a mutual suicide pact by arranging themselves in the correct two positions in a circle where every nth man is to be killed), or a soldier in a Roman legion subject to decimation (every 10th man to be killed - although historically, it turns out that this was decided by lot, not counting off in a line). If he miscounted a "safe" position, he could have wound up being killed instead of surviving. Whether this counts as "dropping dead" or not is subject to interpretation.
My first answer: hand grenade. ,"1, 2, 5!", "Three sir!", "Three!",
Next I went with a paratrooper counting seconds before pulling his rip cord. "One-one-thousand", two-one-thousand, uh..., one-one-thousand, uh... one-one-thou" . He would certainly "drop" dead.
Stunt man came to mind, especially old-timey stunts. I could see a silent picture with Buster Keaton where the barn wall falls on him, and he doesn't time it perfectly so the hayloft door falls right over him. Amizing stunt, by the way.
Duel works too. I never considered it.
Next I went with a paratrooper counting seconds before pulling his rip cord. "One-one-thousand", two-one-thousand, uh..., one-one-thousand, uh... one-one-thou" . He would certainly "drop" dead.
Stunt man came to mind, especially old-timey stunts. I could see a silent picture with Buster Keaton where the barn wall falls on him, and he doesn't time it perfectly so the hayloft door falls right over him. Amizing stunt, by the way.
Duel works too. I never considered it.
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