Thinking out of the box, with "lateral thinking puzzles"

Ever since I first learnt about the existence of Lateral thinking puzzles, I've been intrigued by them.
I was impressed both by the ability and patience that is required to solve them and by the ability to write such a puzzle (to create it) :-)

While playing, they are like fuel for the brain, increasing your creativity, your capacity to see beyond the obvious and your deductive skills... but all this in a fun and socializing way, because they're to be played in groups of friends; and you can also play online (dedicated sites / blogs).

So... what are they? Few initial facts and much added logic... but not the "brain push-ups" kind of logic that you use for logical puzzles or for math exams... and not the kind of creativity you use when writing literature... It's somewhere at the border, where logic meets creativity... By using logic you analyze all possible / impossible / probable / improbable scenarios imposed by the little information you have.

The story teller (a.k.a. the person in the group who knows the puzzle) presents a scenario or situation with very few details. The story will seem quite confusing and illogical at the beginning :-) like "What?!" ... that is usually followed by a quick interior brain-storm (search for a possible logical explanation) and then you realize this is not logical and the facts apparently have no connection to each other... Nope, you conclude that it's not logical at all... well, that just means it's lateral :-) You must think out of the box to solve this one! 

I cannot continue explaining without an example... so... with the risk of ruining one puzzle for you :P I will use one of my favorites... So, imagine you're spending time with a group of friends. Wondering what to do next, one of your friends tells the group, the following Puzzle:
"A man pushed his car. He stopped when he reached a hotel, at which point he knew he was bankrupt. Why?" (source and also other puzzles here).

As you read the facts, there's no straightforward connection between them.
This kind of puzzle is intriguing and apparently hard... but in practice it's really fun and quite relaxing for the brain! Especially if there are several players, that work together and elaborate explanations.

So the goal would be to find out those missing links , between the parts of the puzzle, that would link all information in a logical way, so that each detail makes sense.
Some questions arise, like:
Why was he pushing the car?
If he ran out of gas (logic assumption) why push the car to a hotel and not to a gas station? :-)
How can he know he was bankrupt? And why in front of the hotel?

By means of questioning the story teller, you get closer and closer to the facts that are relevant for the story to make sense. This is the most important focus of the game: ask the right questions and the answer will reveal itself little by little.

Unfortunately for the curious players but fortunately for the fun of deduction, the story teller will only answer yes / no questions, not why / how and other questions! The good thing is that, the players may ask as many questions as they want... 

There's no question-limit and no time-limit imposed! 

These only depend on the patience of your story teller :-)))

The players cooperate, each can ask questions, it's not a competition and even if only one will think about the correct solution, they would have all contributed to solving the puzzle, via their questions.

So, what is the difficulty based on? The players usually stumble on direct assumptions, done implicitly by logic; these usually throw the players on a wrong path from the beginning. In this case, from the first sentence we assume that the car is either broken or without gas (that is actually wrong).
Making such assumptions in case of lateral thinking puzzles can throw the players off the right-track and only after they exhaust all alternatives they come back to the starting point...
So people will probably focus initially on linking the hotel to the bankruptcy, linking the man to the hotel making hypotheses on whom he met and so on... while the real solution is based on other 'unsaid' details... as you will see.

The story can go something like:
"Did he walk into the hotel to find out he was bankrupt?" >>> "No"
"Did he meet anyone in front of the hotel?" >>> "No"
"The hotel was his and when he got there he realized something happened (e.g. the hotel was on fire or something)." >>> "No, he does not own the hotel; nothing happened to the hotel."
... and the list can continue ...
At some point, people will focus also on the car:
Was his car broken? >>> No
Did he push his car for a long distance? >>> No, actually very short (even if the "very short" is a literally relevant hint :P , players will not notice this at first.)
There are some key questions that are highly relevant for the puzzle.
For example:
Did the car have suffice gas? 
The car is an important detail of the puzzle and in this case, both Yes / No answers would be wrong. So, the story teller must find a suitable answer, not to give away too much but also not to hide facts.
By replying "yes, the car had no gas" (which is also true, as you will see), the players assume that's the reason why the car was pushed... and this way he/she can throw players off the correct track. I would say something like: "It had no gas, but that is not the reason why he was pushing it". This way I keep the players still focused on why did he push the car?

As you can see, it is quite challenging also for the story teller, to keep the players correctly informed! He/she will decide how much information to reveal. If the puzzles seems too hard for the players and there's a risk they become frustrated and loose the interest, the story teller can give additional hints.

By focusing on the car, the players will eventually discover that it's not a real car, but a small (toy) car. And by another set of questions related to the hotel / the distance / the bankruptcy topic, in 30 min to 1 hour :P (kidding... may take less :P may take longer ) of questioning the story teller, they will reach the correct solution:
The guy in the story is playing Monopoly. After throwing the dice, he moves his car - on the board of the game - reaching an opponent's "hotel". He then briefly computes that after paying the fee, he will become bankrupt, in Monopoly money, of course :)

As you may realize, the solutions to the puzzles don't just come popping in your brain, just like solving a math problem, or a logical puzzle.
Logical puzzles are also quite intriguing and some very hard to solve, but in lateral thinking, that logic is used is totally different. To make connections, to find an explanation for something that seems impossible.

So... puzzle your brain from time to time, or else it will get rusty!!! ;;)

To make up for the puzzle I "ruined" (by using it as example), here's another one!

A man walks into a bar and asks the barman for a glass of water. The barman pulls out a gun and points it at the man. The man said "thank-you" and walked away. What happened?
(puzzle source same as the previous, but please don't read the solution right away! :P)