Whether you heard it as a kid on the playground, from your weird uncle every year at the holidays, or from books, movies, or TV shows, most of us can recall a riddle that left us scratching our heads for days. There are classics with cutesy answers, like the “cement room” riddle, and logic puzzles we’re still trying to wrap our heads around, like the Brooklyn Nine-Nine “12 men on an island” riddle. But regardless, these brain teasers had us feeling nostalgic and clueless all at once.
Vote up the riddles that puzzled you most when you heard them for the first time. Bonus points if you still can’t answer them today!
- 1Two Masked MenSubmitted by Facebook commenter Juan Crespo:Riddle: A man leaves home on foot one evening, makes three left turns and arrives back home to find two masked men waiting there. Who are they?
2
The Cabin
Submitted by Facebook commenter Matt Bishop:
Riddle: There is a cabin in the woods. There are no footprints around the cabin. There are seven people inside that are all dead. They all died at the same time. There is no one else in the cabin. How did the people die?
3
I Speak Without A Mouth
Submitted by Facebook commenter Fatima Duesbery:
Riddle: I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with the wind. What am I?
4
The Man Who Made It Sold It
Submitted by Facebook commenter Rob McGrath:
The man who made it sold it.
The man who bought it did not use it.
The man who used it did not know it.
What is it?
5
Twelve Men On An Island
Submitted by Facebook commenter Jessica Coleman:
Riddle: There are 12 men on an island. Eleven of them weigh the same and one of them is either slightly heavier or slightly lighter. You have a seesaw to determine who is the odd one out, but you can only use the seesaw up to three times.
6
The Hotel Room Split
Submitted by Facebook commenter Mike Haney:
Riddle: Three men go into a hotel. The man behind the desk says a room is $30, so each man pays $10 and goes to the room. A while later the man behind the desk realized the room was only $25 so he sent the bellboy to the room with $5. On the way the bellboy couldn’t figure out how to split $5 evenly between 3 men, so he gave each man $1 and kept the other $2 for himself.
This meant that the three men each paid $9 for the room, which is a total of $27. Add in the $2 that the bellboy kept = $29. Where is the other dollar?
This particular item stumps a good many people because it contains a simple error which is often overlooked due to its deceptive wording. Tracking the money through the transactions referenced in the text reveals that no money has gone missing:
1. The three men start out with $10 each ($10 x 3 = $30).
2. The three men pay $30 for a hotel room. Afterward, a five dollar overcharge is returned to them ($25 + $5 = $30).
3. The bellboy divides up the $5 overcharge, returning $1 to each of the three men (for a total of $3) and keeping $2 for himself ($25 + $3 + $2 = $30).
Where did the missing dollar go? Nowhere. A dollar only goes “missing” because the statement “each man paid $9 for the room” is wrong: each of the men paid out a total of $9, but that $9 included both the room charge and the bellboy’s tip. All in all, each man paid out a total of $9 and had $1 left over, completely accounting for the $30 they started with.
The room cost $25, so each man paid a third of that cost ($8.33). The bellboy kept a tip of $2, so each man paid a third of that cost ($0.67) as well. Overall, each man paid out $9 ($8.33 + $0.67) for the room and bellboy tip and had a dollar left over: (3 x $9) + (3 x $1) = $27 + $3 = $30.
7
Fallen Fishermen
Submitted by Facebook commenter Joey Alejandro:
Riddle: Four men were fishing in a boat on the lake. The boat turned over and all four men sank to the bottom of the lake. And yet, not one single man got wet. How can this be?
8
Brothers And Sisters I Have None
Submitted by Facebook commenter Wendie Shoemaker:
Riddle: A man in prison has a visitor. Afterward a guard asks the inmate who the visitor was to him. The inmate replies: “Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man’s father is my father’s son.” Who was the visitor to the inmate?
9
The Guy Who Had No Eyes
Submitted by Facebook commenter Deborah DeGraffenreid Hancock:
There was a man who had no eyes,
He went abroad to view the skies;
He saw a tree with apples on it,
He took no apples off, yet left no apples on it.