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Wed 26 Mar, 2003 01:20 pm
A king dies and two men, the true heir and an impostor, both claim to be his long-lost son. Both fit the description of the rightful heir: about the right age, height, coloring and general appearance. Finally, one of the elders proposes a test to identify the true heir. One man agrees to the test while the other flatly refuses. The one who agreed is immediately sent on his way, and the one who refused is correctly identified as the rightful heir.
Can you figure out why?
I have an answer in mind, but there may be more than one solution.
Lateral thinking riddles always have several answers.
Here's a possible one (purposefully dumb):
The King knows that his son lost his genitals in a tragic farming accident. The real son of course does not wish to display this fact.
Maybe to kill the queen or kill the princess or......
I think the likely desired answer involves hemophilia.
OK, so maybe the one who got turned away agreed to be cut - the elders knowing that the rightful heir would refuse for fear of bleeding to death?
Other possible answers:
.... the king hated the hokey pokey so much that he banned it from the kingdom. The rightful heir refused to do it in keeping with his dead father's wishes!
...the rightful heir is allergic to peanuts and would not eat the PB & J - even WITH blackberry jam!
I'll stop now.
The real heir would not leave it to chance. He would refuse a test because by taking part in any kind of test or competition with the imposter would be an unacceptable risk to him losing his inheritance.
Kinda reminds me of the two women who both claim to be the mother of a child. They are brought before the king to settle the matter. With all their fighting and screaming and carrying-on, the king says cut the child in two and give half to each woman. Woman #1 is silent and the woman #2 says no, give the child to the other woman. The king declares woman #2 is the real mother.
I like lateral thinking riddles. I think they are the most realistic riddles there are.
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