50 Lateral Thinking Puzzles With Answers

What Is Lateral Thinking?

Lateral thinking refers to a person’s capacity to problem solve by imagining creative solutions that cannot be figured out by deductive or logical solutions. Basically, it’s thinking outside of the box! Coined by Maltese physician and psychologist, Edward de Bono, lateral thinking is the essence of creativity. This gives you a chance to put on a detective’s hat while solving fun mysteries!

How Is Lateral Thinking Different from Vertical Thinking?

Vertical thinking is when a person goes straight to the obvious and logical answer. With lateral thinking, someone might come up with a solution to a riddle or scenario that requires you to piece facts together to come up with a creative answer. You can stretch your lateral thinking by taking on a lateral thinking puzzle. All you have to do is look at the scenario presented and find context clues. Sometimes the most correct answer to the most lateral thinking puzzles is actually the most obvious, which is why you don’t get there immediately. Other times the correct answer is really difficult to find because you have to come up with the rest of the scenario yourself to get there. If this sounds a little confusing, that’s because it’s supposed to be! Have a little fun and try out these lateral thinking puzzles below to test your super sleuthing skills.

50 Lateral Thinking Puzzles

A couple enters a grand ballroom only to find the occupants are dead. There has been no crime committed. The couple is not concerned by what they have found. How is this possible? Answer: The couple is scuba diving on a sunken cruise ship. The occupants in the ballroom had drowned when the ship sank suddenly in a terrible disaster at sea.
A carrot, a scarf, and five pieces of coal are found lying on your neighbor’s lawn. Nobody put them on the lawn, but there is a simple, logical reason why they are there. What is it? Answer: The items were used by children to build a snowman that has now melted.
An elderly woman lives on the 35th floor and hates taking the stairs. Every day she takes the elevator down to the lobby floor to go to work. When she comes home from work, she takes the elevator to the 25th floor and walks the rest of the way up, except on days when it rains. Those days she takes the elevator all the way home. Why does she walk the last ten flights of stairs if she hates it so much? Answer: The elderly woman is too petite to reach the button for the 35th floor. She can only reach the 25th-floor button. On days when it rains, she uses her umbrella to hit the button for the 35th floor.
You are driving a school bus. The bus is empty when you begin your route. At the first stop, 4 people get on. At the second stop, 8 people get on and 2 get off. At the third stop, 3 people get off and 4 get on. What color are the bus driver’s eyes? Answer: The color of your eyes.
A baby falls out of a window of a 20 story building, yet survives. How? Answer: The window was on the ground floor.
A man pushes his car until he reaches a hotel. When he arrives, he goes bankrupt. What happened? Answer: He’s playing Monopoly and his piece is the car. He lands on a space with a hotel and doesn’t have the money to pay the fee.
Rachael and Monica have moved into a shared house with several other occupants. Monica doesn’t like their new accommodation though because of the angry and aggressive cat that greeted them when they first walked in. Rachael realizes that there isn’t really a problem. Why? Answer: There is a mirror near the entrance. Monica is a cat, saw her reflection, and thought that it was another cat challenging her for territory. Rachael can cover up the mirror until Monica becomes settled, but Monica will figure it out eventually even if Rachael does nothing.
A family has a chicken coop for their one dozen hens. Late one night, a terrible storm came through their area and killed all but eight chickens. How many chickens did the family have the next morning? Answer: The family still had 12 hens, four dead, and eight alive.
A woman with her barking dog enters a room and presses a button. Within seconds, she instantly loses 20 pounds and the dog stops barking. How did she lose the weight? Answer: The room is actually an elevator. When she gets inside to go down to her room, the elevator accelerates downward, making her weight temporarily lower.
The sound of Brian’s snoring is usually just annoying, but today it causes terror and panic. Why? Answer: Brian is a bus driver.
A woman who is in a department store fills her basket to the top and leaves the store without paying. Although she is seen, no one calls the police or attempts to stop her. Why? Answer: The woman works there. She is filling the basket with trash and taking it out to the dumpster.
A man is sentenced to death. He has to choose from three rooms to receive his punishment. The first room has a firing squad with guns loaded. The second room has a blazing fire. The third room is full of tigers that haven’t eaten for six months. Which room should he choose? Answer: The room of tigers. If the tigers haven’t eaten in six months, they’re dead. Best Online Games
A man opened a door, screamed, and then was found dead a few minutes later. No gunshots were heard in the area. What happened to him? Answer: He was on an airplane and opened the door while the plane was in flight, falling to his death.
While walking across a large open field, you come across a woman that has died very suddenly, unexpectedly, and only a very short time ago. You look around but there is no one and nothing except for an unopened package next to the woman. How did she die? Answer: The unopened package was the woman’s parachute. 15. Why is it better to have round manhole covers than square ones? Answer: A square manhole cover can be turned and dropped down the diagonal of the manhole. A round manhole cover cannot be dropped down the manhole. So for safety reasons, all manhole covers should be round
Jason’s dad couldn’t keep his son from playing video games. To keep Jason from playing video games all the time, the dad grabbed a hammer and solved the problem. Now he can play video games but Jason cannot. What did the dad do? Answer: The dad built a shelf out of Jason’s reach and put the video game console up there. The dad can still reach it to play but Jason cannot.
A man and his wife raced through the streets. They stopped and the husband got out of the car. When he returned, his wife was dead and there was a stranger in the car. What happened? Answer: The wife was about to have a baby. The husband drove them to the hospital. The husband left to get a wheelchair but the baby was born in the meantime. The wife died in childbirth.
A woman enters a large metal tube. She is overcome with fear and clenches her boyfriend’s hand tightly. She is visibly shaken. Her boyfriend gently rubs her arms and speaks softly to her, but is unaffected himself. A few hours later, the woman’s boyfriend tells her that it’s time to go and her torment ends. What was happening to the woman? Answer: The woman is terrified of flying but must travel to see a dying relative and this adds to her stress level. Her boyfriend does his best to comfort her during the few hours of the flight.
After a night of partying with her friends, a sorority girl arrives home and finds that she cannot enter her house. She’s sure that she’s at the right home, but she cannot get inside. What happened that makes entering her home impossible? Answer: Her friends took her keys away from her the night before because she had too much to drink. They ordered her an Uber to get home and kept her keys, which meant she didn’t have her house key. 20. One of Michael’s dearest loved ones binds him to a chair, but Michael doesn’t mind. Why? Answer: Michael is a kid. The chair is a car seat. One of Michael’s parents put his seatbelt on for him.
At the bottom of a large hill, more than 50 cars are involved in an accident. Some of the cars are overturned and others are resting on top of other cars. The pile-up is so large that a few military vehicles and a fire truck are also involved in the crash. What happened to cause this big accident? Answer: The cars, trucks, and other vehicles are toys being played with by a toddler.
Every two weeks a woman sits down and writes two words on 60 sheets of paper. Why does she do this? Answer: The woman runs her own small business with 60 employees. Every week she signs her name on their paychecks. 101 Riddles (with Answers)
The man finds himself commuting to work in his car every day. Upon arrival to work each morning, he proceeds to drive his car in a circle four times before finally parking it and entering his office building. Why does the man drive in circles every day? Answer: The man works in a crowded part of downtown and is required to park on the fifth floor of a parking structure every day.
A woman is driving on a sunny day. She makes a turn and water suddenly starts to pelt her car very hard for about five minutes. Then the car is buffed by extremely hard blowing air. The car even begins to shake. The blowing stops, and the woman makes another turn onto the main road and heads home safely. What happened? Answer: The woman drove her car into a drive-through car wash. After about 10 minutes, she leaves and drives his clean car home. 25. A man ran into a fire and lived. A man stayed where there was no fire and died. What caused this? Answer: The two men were working in a small room protected by a carbon dioxide gas fire extinguisher system when a fire broke out in the next room. One of the men ran through the fire and escaped with only minor burns. The other one stayed in the room until the fire extinguishers kicked in and died of oxygen starvation.
A woman hears her name and is then taken away by two men. Later, the woman dies while under the care of many. What happened to this poor woman? Answer: The woman had committed a murder and was determined to be guilty after a fair trial. A judge called her name, gave her the death penalty, and then two bailiffs took her out of the courtroom. Years later, she was executed while under the care and supervision of a doctor and detention officers.
Three kids enter a room, but only two walkout. The room is empty. Where is the third kid? Answer: The third kid uses a wheelchair, so they roll out of the room instead of walking out.
A woman died and went to Heaven. There were thousands of other people there. They were all naked and all looked young. He looked around to see if there was anyone he recognized. He saw a couple and he knew immediately that they were Adam and Eve. How did he know it was them? Answer: He recognized Adam and Eve as the only people without navels. Because they were not born from a woman, they had never had umbilical cords, and therefore they never had a belly button.
Max’s Trucking Company has been delivering goods to and from local businesses for years. Max’s business is steady and his trucks drive the same routes and roads every day without any trouble. This year, Max decided to start delivering and receiving goods on Christmas Day as a way to earn additional money. When Christmas Day finally came, Max sent a few drivers out to do business with those companies that chose to remain open. Later that day, Max received a call that one of his delivery drivers had struck a bridge and severely damaged the truck. How could this happen if the drivers have always used the same route without any previous problems? Answer: On Christmas Day, many of the local businesses that contract with Max’s company had shut down for the day. Having made a final delivery, and not receiving any new goods to transport, this particular truck was empty. When returning to headquarters the empty truck had a higher profile and struck the bridge on the way back.
A woman grabbed a guy’s ring, pulled on it, and dropped it, thereby saving his life. What happened? Answer: They were skydiving. He broke his arm as he jumped from the plane by hitting it on the plane door, and he couldn’t reach his ripcord with his other arm to pull out the parachute. She pulled the ripcord for him.
If you were alone in a dark room, with only one match and an oil lamp, a fireplace, and a candle to choose from, which would you light first? Answer: The match. 32. On a hot Saturday afternoon, a woman was walking slowly through the savannah when she spotted a lion in the distance. Instead of turning around, hiding, or seeking help, the woman began to run towards where the lion was. Why wasn’t she afraid? Answer: The woman was visiting a zoo.
Fiona entered a restaurant where a crowd of people was enjoying a meal. When the people saw Fiona they dropped their forks and fled the restaurant. What happened? Answer: Fiona was the name of a reticulated python who escaped from the local zoo and found herself entering a crowded restaurant.
In a large, completely empty, wooden barn is Old Man Jenkins, hanging dead from the middle of the central rafter. He is hanging three feet off the ground by a rope ten feet long. The closest wall is 20 feet away from the hanging man. It would not be possible to climb up the walls or along the rafters. Below him is a puddle of water. How did Old Man Jenkins hang himself? Answer: Old Man Jenkins stood on a block of ice and hung when it melted.
A girl celebrated her birthday. Two days later, her older twin celebrated his. How? Answer: When she went into labor the mother of the twins was traveling by boat. The older twin brother was born first early on March 1st. The boat then crossed the time zone line and the younger twin girl was born on February the 28th. In a leap year, the younger twin celebrates her birthday two days before her older brother.
A man was wanted for burglarizing dozens of businesses over a period of almost a year. Surveillance footage from the businesses clearly showed this man’s face and the local news station showed this footage to viewers on many occasions. The local police department even placed “wanted” posters around the community to help catch the burglar. However, when the man was spotted by two police officers familiar with the burglaries, he was not arrested. What happened? Answer: The man was currently in jail and the two police officers came to get a statement from him for the upcoming trial.
A woman has indisputable proof in court that her husband was murdered by her sister. The judge declares, “This is the strangest case I’ve ever seen. Though it’s a clear case, this woman cannot be punished.” How can this be? Answer: The sisters are Siamese twins.
One sunny day, you’re cruising on your boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. In the middle of the ocean, you spot a yacht and see several corpses floating in the water nearby. What happened? Answer: A group of people was vacationing on a yacht. One day, they decided to go swimming, put on their swimsuits, and dove off the side. They discovered belatedly that they had forgotten to put a ladder down the side of the yacht and were unable to climb back in, so they drowned.
Several voices were heard coming from the other room. There was a lot of commotion however when the room was checked there was only one person inside. What’s going on? Answer: The other voices were coming from a TV.
There are a dozen eggs in a carton. Twelve people each take a single egg, but there is one egg left in the carton. How? Answer: The 12th person takes the egg and the carton, leaving the egg inside.
Two men ordered dinner in a restaurant. They both ordered the same items from the menu. After they both tasted it, one of the men went outside the restaurant and shot himself. Why did he do so? Answer: The food the two men ordered was swordfish. Many years earlier they had both been stranded on a desert island after a plane crash. When one of the men tasted the swordfish, he realized he had never tasted it before. This meant that the meat he had been given on the island was actually not swordfish, as he had been told. He realized that he had eaten the flesh of his son who died when the accident happened. The thought drove him to insanity and he killed himself.
A body is discovered in a park in New York in the middle of summer. It has a fractured skull and many other broken bones, but the cause of death was hypothermia. What happened? Answer: The body was a poor refugee from somewhere in the Middle East who desperately wants to come to the United States. Lacking money for a ticket, he stowed away in the landing gear compartment of an airplane jet. He dies of hypothermia in mid-flight and falls out when the compartment opens as the plane makes its final approach.
One day a woman received a parcel in the mail. She found a carefully packed human arm inside. She examined it, repacked it, and sent it on to another woman. The second woman also carefully examined the arm and then took it to the woods and buried it. Why did they both do these things? Answer: Years earlier, three women had been stranded on a desert island. When they became desperate for food, they agreed to amputate their left arms in order to eat them. One of them, a doctor, cut off the arms of the other two women. Because they swore an oath to all have their left arm cut off after they were rescued, the doctor had her arm amputated and sent to the other two women.
A hunter aimed his gun carefully and fired. Seconds later, he realized his mistake. Minutes later, he was dead. What happened? Answer: It was winter. He fired the gun near a snowy cliff, which started an avalanche.
The music stops and a woman dies. What’s going on? Answer: The woman performs as a tightrope walker in a circus. Her act consists of walking the rope blindfolded, accompanied by music, without a net. The conductor is supposed to stop the music when she reaches the end of the rope, signaling that it’s safe to step off onto the platform. That day, the usual conductor came down with the flu. The substitute stopped the music early.
A man is lying dead, face down in the desert. There’s a match near his outstretched hand. What happened? Answer: He was with several others in a hot air balloon, crossing the Sahara desert. The balloon was punctured and they began to lose altitude. They tossed all their non-essentials overboard and then their clothing and food, but they were still sinking too fast. They drew matches to see who would jump over the side and save the others. This man lost.
Hans and Fritz are German spies during World War II. They try to enter America, posing as returning tourists. Hans is immediately arrested. What happened to give him away? Answer: Crossing the border, Hans and Fritz were required to fill out a personal information form, which asked about their birthdays. The German date ordering is day/month/year, rather than the American way, month/day/year. Fritz was born on July 7th, so he wrote down 7/7/15 – no problem. Hans was born on, say, July 20th, so he wrote down 20/7/15 instead of the American way, 7/20/15. Since Hans had claimed to be a returning American, he was found out by the border patrol.
A woman had two sons. They were born at the same hour on the same day of the same month in the same year. However, they were not twins. How could this be? Answer: Her two sons were part of a set of triplets (or quadruplets!). 49. A man walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a glass of water. The bartender pulls out a gun and points it at the man. The man says, “Thank you” and walks out. What happened? Answer: The man had hiccups and the bartender’s gun scared them out of him, to which he said, “Thank you.” 50. A man is sitting in a dark room having a great time. Suddenly, he stops breathing and can’t speak. In a matter of moments, his breathing and ability to speak come back to him. What happened? Answer: The man is in a movie theater enjoying his new favorite movie. He takes a drink of his favorite soda and begins to choke on an ice cube. This prevents him from breathing or speaking momentarily. Soon the ice melts and the man is able to breathe and speak again. Check out…101 Brain Teasers125 Brain Teasers for Kids25 Rebus Puzzles