When was he born?

            Some months back, this year, I was walking through the Central Park in New York. 

            I saw an intelligent looking little boy playing all by himself on the grass. I decided to talk to him and just as an excuse to start the conversation I asked him his age. A mischievous glint flickered in his eyes and he replied. ‘Two days back I was ten years old, and next year I shall be thirteen. If you know what’s today you’ll be able to figure out my birthday and that’ll give you my age. I looked at him bewildered.

           How old was the boy?

Answer:  The date on which I met the boy was 1^st January 1977. And the boy’s birthday was on 31^st December, 1965. The boy was 11 years old on the day I met him.

The sari and the Blouse

             I bought a sari and a blouse for Rs. 110 at the new market. The sari cost Rs. 100 more than the blouse, how much does the sari cost? 

Answer:  If the sari cost Rs. 100  and the blouse Rs. 10 the difference would be Rs. 90 and therefore , the sari must cost more and the blouse less. A little thought indicates the sari costs Rs. 105 and the blouse Rs.5. So, the difference in cost is Rs.100.

The Number Game

           The product of three consecutive numbers when divided by each of them in turn, the sum of the three quotients will be 74. 

What are the numbers?

Answer: 4.5 and 6.

For the Charities

           One day when I was walking on the road in New Delhi, a group of boys approached me for donation for their poor boys’ found. I gave them a rupee more than half the money I had in my purse. I must have walked a few more yards when a group of women approached me for donation, for an orphanage. I gave them two rupees more than half the money I had in my purse. Then, after a few yards I was approached by a religious group for a donation to the temple they were building. I gave them three rupees more than half of what I had in my purse.

            At last when I returned to my hotel room, I found that I had only one rupee remaining in my purse.

How much money did I have in my purse when I started?

Answer:  I must have had Rs. 42 in my purse when I started.

The Dishonest Merchant

              AN unscrupulous trader decided to make some extra profit on coffee. He bought one type of coffee powder at Rs. 32 a kilo and mixed some of it with a better quality of coffee powder bought at Rs.40 a kilo, and he sold the blend at Rs. 43 a kilo. That gave him a profit of 25 per cent on the cost.

How many kilos of each kind must he use to make a blend of a hundred kilos weight? 

Answer:   The merchant must mix 70 kilos of the Rs. 32 Coffee with 30 kilos of Rs. 40 coffee.