That’s an even better answer than the traditional one. Definitely gives one the … “Well, duh!” feeling that they should’ve known.
WAG: The sculptor made the statue with iron from his own blood. He used too much blood.
That would be a mighty small statue:
That equates to 1.2 to 3.6 grams of iron in the blood. And that’s ALL of the blood. I don’t think it’s possible to survive much more than 25% blood loss without nearly immediate death. One would think there would be an easier way to make a teeny tiny iron statue. 
Such things do not exist. Look at the Wikipedia discussion of this. You are given an example with clear but unstated assumptions (strawman?), and then you change the assumptions until you get an answer that you find intuitively correct. Never mind that “intuitively correct” is quite often an oxymoron.
Consider the examples given:
The answer is that there is no such thing as half a hole. However, it is just as reasonable to ask, “What is the volume of the comparison hole?” Clearly this makes more sense, since it is not reasonable to think that someone would seriously ask for half a hole. So is she referring to post holes? Basements for new house constructions?
The answer five minutes because knot difficulty is not a function of rope length. This person has obviously never worked in a kite shop. I can assure you that if you wind up your string on a Halo winder while the kite is in the air, you will be much more frusterated with 1,000’ of string rather than 500’ of string when the Halo breaks and you are left sorting out the wreckage of this string-grenade. Here the author is making a few unstated assumptions that we are free to change, just as she was free to change the assumptions of the hole-digging question.
So we look at the OP. We have a penniless artist who died because he sold a beautiful metal statue. Why? Well, before he didn’t have enough money to drink himself to death. He was so poor that he lived in a crime ridden neighborhood and died in a robbery. He died of heartbreak because he no longer had the statue–he didn’t want to sell it, he had to.
Ironically, if you go to DeBono’s L-Game, you find a game that is bound by very rigid rules and ends up being a boring, mechanical exercise. The way to win is to wait for your opponent to mistakenly fail to follow one of the two narrow strategic rules of play. Not very lateral at all, really.
Two thoughts: Some of the highest mountains in the world start underwater. If the mountain was (example) 25,000 feet high, but only 900 feet was exposed, that could provide the twist. His body was found 100 feet underwater.
Another twist could be volcanos… the height of the mountain could have literally changed in the years since the climbers death. And/or the climber could have become “entombed” in the volcano. Knowing the day the volcano erupted could correlate with a diary entry.
RM Mentock
Okay here are 2 riddles that I think are not inane. Spoliers ahead (but I’m sure everyone has seen these anyway).
1)Someone quoted the legendary puzzle about the surgeon not being able to operate on the boy because he was the surgeon’s son. But the surgeon was NOT the boy’s father. ANSWER - the surgeon was the boy’s MOTHER.
Granted that is a groaner to some people but it has a logical premise and a rather definitive answer (as opposed to sculptors dying of lightning strikes and people living on the tenth floor).
- A customer went into a hardware store and bought seven. The cost was $1.50. Another customer bought three hundred and twenty-one and the cost was $4.50. What were they buying? ANSWER: House Numbers at $1.50 each. Again, maybe these aren’t everybody’s cup of tea but at least they make some kind of sense.
I’ll return to the puzzle I posted earlier and state the entire “problem”.
The haystack was important because the cloth ripped.
According to the author of the puzzle the alleged “answer” is that a parachutist developed a rip in a parachute causing hin (or her) to fall at a dangerous rate and luckily he landed in a haystack and that’s the reason for its importance. Does that stink on ice or what???
One complication - how many times have parachutes ripped? I believe causes of parachute-related injuries and/or death are due to failure of a parachute’s opening; inexperience of the parachutist; the parachutist getting tangled in the parachute lines, etc. Having the “cloth rip” must rank #1,378 in parachute jumpers’ deaths.
Another complication - how many times has a haystack been conveniently available to an unlucky skydiver ? What’s he doing skydiving near a farm anyway? Also, is the haystack sufficiently large with the right amount of cushioning effect to save the skydiver’s life? Are you sure there will not be a pitchfork (or other dangerous implement) in the haystack to ensure the skydiver survives? Also, in reality how many skydivers have had their parachute rip and then luckily had the good fortune to land in a haystack * and * survive?
The surgeon puzzle and house number puzzles don’t seem so bad now do they? At least those things actually do hppen in reality. Also they do have that kind of “A-Ha” experience when you figure out the answer. Those other puzzles? No thanks. Once again I’m glad I’m not alone on this.
That would be plausible, except for the part of the puzzle that stated the man could go up to the 10th floor on rainy days.
Of course. He was a starving artist. Ba-da-boom!
How about if the climber’s harness was still rigged for climbing and not descending? The harness would have a rappeling device on it, and not as it was found on his body with the harness tied directly to the rope.
As for the dwarf, who cares?
Short people got no reason
Short people got no reason
Short people got no reason
To live
A Die is used in cutting or embossing metal.
To die is to use one.
‘He died soon afterwards’ - he started on another statue?
That’s an added twist. But that solution is usually the first solution guessed–it’s an obvious solution that fits the facts and it’s rejected. That’s what made that problem interesting.
The reason we don’t appreciate them is that C is not the simplest, most elegant answer.
Why would a person falling from a plane with a faulty chute take the chute off in mid air? Did they think they could open it manually and somehow not have it ripped from their arms? If they didn’t take it off why was the package beside them? In fact C is a ridiculously contrived answer that requires the person to act in an irrational and quite likely physically impossible manner? It’s not elegant, it makes requires ridiculous assumptions to make sense.
Even if we were to act in the spirit so many here are suggesting, then I can think of a far more elegant answer that still uses all the clues given. The man had a medical condition. He ran out of medicine and went to open a new package in an emergency. He couldn’t open it. On his way to get assistance he took a shortcut across a field and dropped dead.
There, see I used all the clues provided. I didn’t shoe-horn the answer at all. But my answer doesn’t require anyone to act like a moron and take of a parachute in mid air. IMO my answer is far les contrived and convoluted than the ‘official’ answer.
Seems to be subjective. I’m surprised that there are such strong emotions.
Yahbut, that’s not the ‘official’ puzzle. 
RM Mentock other answers (though just as plausible) don’t count unless you give the “official” answer?
Returning to my puzzle about 1 customer buying seven for $1.50 and another buying three hundred and twenty-one for $4.50, house numbers @1.50 is the logical answer. You could make up some convaluted “off-the-wall” story that the harware store decided to have a special “321 for the price of $4.50 sale” after the previous customer left, but that is just too “forced”.
Here - I’ll make up one just for you. A man was killed after being hit by a truck. The man was nowhere near a street, highway or other thoroughfare. The area around the dead man contained no tire tracks whatsoever even after the truck had hit him. But everyone knew the truck had killed him. So, what happened?
Go ahead RM Mentock - have your fun. Oh, and you must give the “official” answer.
I was puzzled at your response until I went back and re-read the post where this first appeared. I forgot that the rainy day twist was mentioned as an add-on. Probably because I had never heard this puzzle without the rainy day twist. The twist is what makes the answer sensible (rather than the solution where the buttons don’t work for the top floors).
The truck fell out of an aircraft which was transporting it. They knew the truck killed him because it was still on top of him.
I say the man worked in a truck factory. He was killed by a truck on the assembly line.
Which is more elegant? I dunno.
QED - that would be an acceptable answer. However, I am basing the puzzle on RM Mentock’s menatlity of only accepting the “official” answer (which is mine of course).
Just as a point of explantion the truck was NOT on top of the man after he was killed. Yet, the truck left no tire tracks.
QED - to me this is an inane puzzle (of my own contrivance) but I just wanted to see how RM Mentock likes this sort of foolishness.
So, RM, have you figured it out yet? Hint - the answer has nothing to do with haystacks, parachutes, dwarves, mountain climber’s fountain pens, etc.
Obviously, Fredrick Randolph Truck, the most ornery of the bellicose Truck family, had too much drink that night.
Please folks do not waste your time with this - it’s about as much “fun” as the sculptor and the lightning rod puzzle. I don’t want you folks getting angry with me when I reveal the answer. I want RM to try this puzzle. This seems to be his cup oftea so to speak. And therefore, he should not get angry with me when I reveal the answer.
Factories are near streets, and trucks aren’t generally shipped via air.
From dictionary.com: Truck is a noun which means a small piece of wood, usually cylindrical or disk-shaped, used for various purposes, inter alia.
In this case, “various purposes” includes smashing some poor slob’s head in the middle of a forest when “everyone” just happened to be there to witness it.