The Queen's riddle - email jksw

The Queen's Riddle Barack Obama met with the Queen of England. He asked her, "Your Majesty, how do you run such an efficient government? Are there any tips you can give me?" "Well," said the Queen, "the most important thing is to surround yourself with intelligent people." Obama frowned, and then asked, "But how do I know the people around me are really intelligent?" The Queen took a sip of tea. "Oh, that's easy; you just ask them to answer an intelligent riddle." The Queen pushed a button on her intercom. "Please send David Cameron the Prime Minister in here, would you?" David Cameron walked into the room and said, "Yes, Your Majesty?" The Queen smiled and said, "Answer me this, please, David. Your mother and father have a child. It is not your brother and it is not your sister. Who is it?" Without pausing for a moment, David Cameron answered, "That would be me." "Yes! Very good," said the Queen. Obama went back home to ask Joe Biden the same question. "Joe, answer this for me. Your mother and your father have a child. It's not your brother and it's not your sister. Who is it?" "I'm not sure," said Biden. "Let me get back to you on that one!" He went to his advisors and asked everyone, but no one could give him an answer. Finally, Biden ran into Sarah Palin in a restaurant one night. Biden asked, "Sarah, can you answer this for me? Your mother and father have a child, and it's not your brother or your sister. Who is it?" Sarah Palin answered right back, "That's easy, it's me!" Biden smiled, and said, Then, he went back to speak with Obama. "Say, I did some research and I have the answer to that riddle. It's Sarah Palin!" Obama got up, stomped over to Biden, and angrily yelled into his face, "No! You idiot! It's David Cameron !"

Note by Philip G V 

The above riddle has a parallel and was enacted in Sri Lanka more than 2000 years ago. It relates to The Venerable Mahinda Thera quizzing the King Devanampiya Tissa on how many mango trees were there at the mango grove at Mihinthale. When Mahinda answered the question correctly he was deemed fit to receive instructions on the philosophy of Buddhism. This I presume was the first recorded IQ test in history. This incident is recorded in the Mahawansa - a Pali chronicle - written around 500 AD.