A Tale of Two Painters

An ancient story goes that there was a king that wanted his reception hall to be painted and promised a bag of gold to an artist who will make the best wall-size creation.  Only two artists in the kingdom dared to participate. They were each assigned a long wall, opposite to each other.  One of the artists worked three days and three nights and made a magnificent full-wall drawing. Another artist slept most of the time, didn't request any paint and late third night installed a wall-size mirror.

The day of the show came and the king entered the hall observing two identical wall-size paintings. The hall had dim illumination so no reflection was visible. Still, the king was smart enough to recognize the fraud. He ordered a bag of gold to be brought in and placed next to the real painting. "You have created a masterpiece and this bag is yours," proclaimed the king to the first painter.
"What about me?" asked the second painter.
"Here is your reward," said the kind pointing to the reflection of the bag on the second painting.

The question is, how did the king know that the second painting is not real if he didn't approach either of them.

This is how the hall looks like right now, with both all-size paintings covered by drapes.

Your thoughts and ideas accepted any time until midnight on Sunday on our Family Puzzle Marathon. They will be hidden till then and everyone who submitted something reasonable will get a puzzle point.

Magical fragrance - how to share

Fairy god mother granted two of her favorite fairies a bottle of magical fragrance pictured below.  She commanded them to split the fragrance equally.  

As fairies were in a state of war with each other they were not keen on sharing the fragrance daily.  So they decided that one of them will use half of the fragrance and pass over the bottle with the remaining half to the second fairy.  The bottle is semitransparent but not symmetrical in either horizontal or vertical direction.  How can the second fairy verify whether the amount she gets is indeed half of the original amount?  The bottle was completely full to start with. No measuring marks are present on the bottle and fairy doesn't want to pour any drops of the magical liquid out.

Answer ideas accepted any time until midnight on Saturday October 22nd (EST), on our Family Puzzle Marathon. They will be hidden till then and everyone who submitted something reasonable will get a puzzle point.

A Roman Puzzle

One noble Roman dictated a will on his deathbed requesting to split his possessions between his pregnant wife and the unborn child in the following way. If the child is a boy, he should get 2/3 of the total amount, leaving 1/3 to the wife. If the child is a girl, she should get 1/3, leaving 2/3 to the wife. The nobleman died and a few months later his wife gave birth to twins: a boy and a girl. The smartest men and women of the empire were called to resolve the inheritance dispute. One of them - Stevenus Goodmanus - came up with a solution and a proof that it follows the will as closely as possible. What is this solution?

Image by Steven O'Donald, distributed under CCL.

This puzzle celebrates our 20+ puzzle winner, known nowadays as SteveGoodman18.

Answers accepted all day long on Friday June 24th and Saturday June 25th, on our Family Puzzle Marathon. They will be hidden until Sunday morning (EST) and everyone who solved it will get a puzzle point.

How long is the Loch Ness monster? - a tribute to M.Gardner

The Loch Ness monster's length is 20 meters plus half of its length. What is his total length?

This puzzle is from the Martin Gardner's "Aha!" book.
Submit your answer on our Family Puzzle Marathon Be first to solve three puzzles and get a prize!

Pirate's Will

An old and rich pirate who retired in Hawaii and had spent his time
growing fruit trees, left the following will for his kids:
"A treasure is burried under one of the trees on my property. Number all
six trees in my garden in the following order: cherry tree - 1st, pear
tree - 2nd, apple tree - 3rd, coconut tree - 4th, plum tree - 5th, date
tree - 6th, and walk around while continuing to count these trees in this
order, such that in the next round the cherry tree is now numbered 7, pear
tree - 8, apple tree 9 etc. You will find the treasure under the tree with
the count 10,004."

Do you think kids could find the treasure without going around in 10,004 / 6
circles?
What tree is the treasure under?

Enter your answer on our Family Puzzle Marathon page. Solve three and get a prize!

A Fairytale Puzzle

A wicked witch turned a handsome prince into a frog, and threw the prince-frog into the cold and dark bottom of the well. She then made the bucket rope disappear.



A beautiful princess-to-be was passing by and heard the croaking of the frog. She thought that he might be a prince and decided to get him out. What length of a rope does she need to find, if she can see that the diameter of a cylinder where rope rolls is 5" and she remembers that it usually takes 10 rotations to get the bucket from the bottom all the way up?

Please explain your answer on our Family Puzzle Marathon site. Solve three puzzles and get a prize!

Marriage or Death

A poor but honest knight wants to marry a beautiful princess, and she wants to marry him. The king offers the knight a choice. He can draw one of two slips of paper from a golden box. One will say "Marriage," the other "Death." The princess manages to whisper to her suitor that both slips say "Death." But the knight and the beautiful princess are wed. How did he accomplish this? (from The Mensa Genius Quiz Book)

The King's Salary.

After the revolution, each of the 66 citizens of a certain country, including the king, has a salary of $1. The king can no longer vote, but he does retain the power to suggest changes - namely, redistribution of salaries. Each person's salary must be a whole number of dollars, and the salaries must sum to $66. Each suggestion is voted on, and carried if there are more votes for than against. Each voter can be counted on to vote "yes" if his salary is to be increased, "no" if decreased, and otherwise not to bother voting.

The king is both, selfish and clever. What is the maximum salary he can obtain for himself, and how long does it take him to get it? (from P.Winkler, loosely inspired by real historical events in Sweden)

How you would like to die?

An explorer was captured by a tribe whose chief decided that the man should die. The chief was a very logical man and gave the explorer a choice. The explorer was to give a single statement. If it was true, he would be thrown over a high cliff. If it was false, he would be eaten by lions.
What statement did the clever explorer make that forced the chief to let him go? (this puzzle is from P.Sloane)