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If someone asked you for your favorite riddle, would you have an answer? Do you have one that just gets the reaction you want every single time, one you just can’t wait to pull out at parties?
If so, you would feel at home with these 12 people, who jumped at the chance to share their favorite stumper on Reddit – and now we all know 12 more great riddles, too.
12. Is this from a movie? I feel like it is.
Tear me off and scratch my head. What once was red is black instead.
Answer: A match
11. Not what you think.
Two old fishermen are sitting by the fire talking. One says “The ones we caught we threw away. The ones we didn’t catch we kept!”, and his friend agrees.
What are they talking about?
Answer: Their fleas
10. I love it.
This one is very heavy on lateral thinking – after giving the opening to the riddle (below), tell the other person they may ask as many questions they want to figure the answer out providing you can answer it with “Yes”, “No”, or “That’s irrelevant”.
A man walks into a restaurant and sits down at a table. He orders a seagull sandwich from the menu. The sandwich arrives, the man takes a bite of it, then leaves the restaurant, goes home, and commits suicide. Why?
Your friend is then expected to get the following convoluted solution from their questioning, which from experience people either love the game to figure it out, or loathe how out there the correct answer is.
Answer: The man is a widower whose wife died on a holiday in the past. They were on a cruise when the ship capsized. The man and his wife made it onto a lifeboat with a few other survivors and washed up on a deserted island.
The man’s wife and another survivor went to search for food and eventually the stranger returns with a large amount of “seagull meat”, but unfortunately informs the man that his wife was killed (fell to her death, gored by a bore, or anything else) during the expedition. They eat the “seagull”, and after being rescued the man returns home alone.
In the restaurant the man orders a dish containing seagull meat, and upon taking a bite he notices that the taste is not the same as the “seagull” he ate on the island. The revelation makes him realise what actually happened that day, an unable to live with the guilt of eating his wife, he kills himself.
9. Too many gods.
Three gods A, B, and C are called, in no particular order, True, False, and Random. True always speaks truly, False always speaks falsely, but whether Random speaks truly or falsely is a completely random matter
Your task is to determine the identities of A, B, and C by asking three yes-no questions; each question must be put to exactly one god. The gods understand English, but will answer all questions in their own language, in which the words for yes and no are da and ja, in some order. You do not know which word means which.
A single god may be asked more than one question, questions are permitted to depend on the answers to earlier questions, and the nature of Random’s response should be thought of as depending on the flip of a fair coin hidden in his brain: if the coin comes down heads, he speaks truly; if tails, falsely.
Answer: You tell us!
8. Ask all of the questions.
A man is driving on the highway. At one point, he stops, gets out of his car and shots himself. Why?
Answer: He’s a radio anchorman. He killed his wife for insurance fraud or whatever reason and wanted to cover it up by pre-recording his show which normally airs live to have an alibi for the time period when his wife was killed.
After the deed, he was driving home and heard his own voice on the radio… but the tape got stuck and now everyone knows his “live” show was pre-recorded.
He kills himself upon realizing his alibi won’t work
7. What to do first?
A mountain climber, barely alive in the middle of a freezing blizzard, stumbles upon a wooden cabin. Pulling himself inside and well aware that he’s got severe hypothermia on his face, hands and feet, he surveys the interior.
There’s a small wood-burning stove and even an old propane barbecue, although our hiker can’t remember if burning propane indoors is safe. On a small bedside table is an aromatherapy candle, although the climber isn’t sure how much heat it’ll give off, and an antique oil lantern less than a quarter full.
Going through his supplies, the hiker discovers he only has one wooden match left. And with less than ten minutes before he succumbs to the frostbite, his survival depends on making the right choice.
What does the hiker light first?
Answer: The match
6. Simple but great.
What can travel the world while staying in a corner?
Answer: A stamp
5. Everybody together now!
4 people are trying to cross a bridge. One can cross in 1 minute, one can cross in 2 minutes, one can cross in 5 minutes, and one can cross in 10 minutes. The bridge can only support 2 people at a time.
They only have one flashlight and whenever a person/group is crossing, they must carry the flashlight. What’s the quickest amount of time to get everyone across?
Answer: 17 minutes.
The 1 min and 2 min go together (2 min), the 1 min comes back (1 min) and sends the 5 min and 10 min together (10 min), the 2 min comes back with the light (2 min) and brings the 1 min with him (2 min).
4. I had to think about this.
What can be filled with empty hands.
Answer: Gloves
3. You can only tell it verbally.
One knight, a king and a queen put their baby to bed. Then the king and queen leave the room. In the morning the baby was dead, how did it die?
Answer: The knight killed it.
If you’re speaking, most people will assume you said “night.”
2. That’s a ton of information.
Looking for something? Open me. I’m sure that your something inside of me lies. Of course, you could always find hope in me. Though, despair must come first, and later surprise. What’s sought, though, depends on the seeker.
Some look for bobbin, others for beaker. Others for nature. Still others for nurture. The quarry will vary from searcher to searcher. And, yet, I suspect this will strike you as strange: My contents are set and will not ever change.
If you still cannot guess what I mean, here’s a clue: The answer, what I mean, lies inside of me, too. What am I?
Answer: An unabridged dictionary
1. A classic!
How far can a dog run into the woods?
Answer: Halfway. After that he’s running out of the woods.
Definitely going to make some of these my own – my set could always use some fresh blood.
If you do have a favorite riddle, please drop it in the comments!
