A Riddle

Lengthy but difficult and interesting...
A certain king in a certain country portioned out an amount of gold to his goldsmith who was instructed to make goblets. 100 total. The goldsmith portioned the gold equally to each of his ten apprentices with the instructions they were to make ten goblets each. Each goblet was to be identical in every respect including the amount of material used.
The plot: The king discovered one apprentice was shorting his goblets by one ounce of gold each, and pocketing the stolen gold himself. It so infuriated him that he set his goldsmith before him and gave him a set of scales with the instruction that he was to discover the culprit. However because the goldsmith had hired such a man, as punishment, he was only allowed to use the scale once. Get it wrong and he would loose his life. Get it right and he would be forgiven. I have told you all you need to know. How did the goldsmith discover the thief?

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

To me this isnt a riddle because its pretty much made up crap lol. Ive heard it before though and still cant remember the silly solution lol

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your right Mike it is made up crap...hahahahaha

Here's one I was actually asked in a job interview, because I couldn't get it right I will never forget the answer. :P

You are in a room with 3 light switches. In the room next to it there are three light bulbs. You can open the connecting door only once. How do you determine which light switch goes to which light bulb?

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Originally Posted by tonkatoyman

Lengthy but difficult and interesting...
A certain king in a certain country portioned out an amount of gold to his goldsmith who was instructed to make goblets. 100 total. The goldsmith portioned the gold equally to each of his ten apprentices with the instructions they were to make ten goblets each. Each goblet was to be identical in every respect including the amount of material used.
The plot: The king discovered one apprentice was shorting his goblets by one ounce of gold each, and pocketing the stolen gold himself. It so infuriated him that he set his goldsmith before him and gave him a set of scales with the instruction that he was to discover the culprit. However because the goldsmith had hired such a man, as punishment, he was only allowed to use the scale once. Get it wrong and he would loose his life. Get it right and he would be forgiven. I have told you all you need to know. How did the goldsmith discover the thief?

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Take a goblet from the first and then increase by one for each additional apprentice. Making 55 goblets on the scale. Since each should weigh a certain amount (say 10 ounces since it was not specified) the number of ounces below 550 will give you the culprit. It you have 549 ounces on the scale then the first one is the thief and so on.

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Originally Posted by Kinra

Here's one I was actually asked in a job interview, because I couldn't get it right I will never forget the answer. :P

You are in a room with 3 light switches. In the room next to it there are three light bulbs. You can open the connecting door only once. How do you determine which light switch goes to which light bulb?

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You open the door and leave it open or hold it open. And look at which lights go on when you flip each switch

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

You open the door and leave it open or hold it open. And look at which lights go on when you flip each switch

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Sounds good to me, but I bet the switches aren't near the door.

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Originally Posted by wwmjkd

this is probably none too clever given that the membership here is more likely than not very familiar with the source material, but I enjoy this kind of thread:

"this thing all things devours; birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
bites iron and gnaws steel, and grinds hard stone to meal;
slays kings and ruins towns, and beats high mountains down"

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Originally Posted by RetiredJedi

wind?

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also in the neighborhood, but no.

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Originally Posted by wwmjkd

also in the neighborhood, but no.

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death

Time is the answer

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Originally Posted by DrDooLittle

Sounds good to me, but I bet the switches aren't near the door.

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Well if that isnt the answer then you turn on 1 light but dont use the door. Then turn it off. Then turn on a 2nd light and go into the room. The light that is warm was the 1st one and the 2nd one is on and the third one is cold. I dont think thats the answer though bc that wouldnt work if you cant reach the lights or if theyre fluorescent which dont make alot of heat. I think my 1st one was right... Just leave the door open.