Ten Problems

Here’s a famous one:

I start with the letter E.
I end with the letter E.
I usually contain only one letter
Yet I am not the letter E!
What am I?

As I was going to St. Ives,
I met a man with seven wives.

Each wife had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits.

Kits, cats, sacks, wives,
How many are going to St. Ives?

An annoyed detention teacher told his misbehaving student, “You have a minute to produce a 1000-word essay. Go!”

What should the student do?

As the school year was progressing, a teacher was distressed that more and more of her students were beginning to tease and make fun of one another. She decided to do something about it. When they returned to the classroom after Spring Break, they saw a mirror on the wall with a sign next to it.
When one of the students came to her crying about the names she had been called at recess, she sent the girl to the mirror with these directions: Read that sign quietly to yourself. Repeat it over and over, gradually running the sounds together. Each time, look at yourself in the mirror. Soon you will be smiling.
Sure enough, when the student followed these directions, she came away smiling.
Each time a student would come to the teacher feeling low, she would give them the same directions. Sometimes they would have difficulty, so she would go over to read the sign with them. Eventually, each one would come away smiling.
This is what the sign said: I.Y.Q.Y.Q.R.

Why did this little exercise help her students feel better about themselves?

Solution

A girl who was just learning to drive went down a one-way street in the wrong direction, but didn’t break the law. Why?

Update: Solutions are posted!

Who is your father’s only son’s brother’s uncle’s wife’s daughter’s brother’s father’s son?

Solution

A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, the second is full of assassins with loaded guns, and the third is full of lions that haven’t eaten in 3 years - Which room is safest for him?