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EscapePod Daily

The world today, and the world as it was.

Riddles

Brain teasers

61 riddles. Tap one to have a go.

  1. A man pushes his car to a hotel and tells the owner he's bankrupt. Why?
  2. If you're running a race and pass the person in second place, what place are you in?
  3. A rooster lays an egg on the very top of a pointed roof. Which side does it roll down?
  4. A girl has as many brothers as sisters, but each brother has only half as many brothers as sisters. How many brothers and sisters are in the family?
  5. Mary's father has five daughters: Nana, Nene, Nini and Nono. What's the fifth daughter's name?
  6. What can you hold without ever touching it?
  7. A plane crashes exactly on the border between two countries. Where do they bury the survivors?
  8. Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world?
  9. How can a man go eight days without sleep?
  10. A farmer has 17 sheep. All but 9 run away. How many are left?
  11. What has to be taken from you before you can have it?
  12. I'm an odd number. Take away one letter and I become even. What number am I?
  13. Two fathers and two sons go fishing. They catch three fish and each gets exactly one. How?
  14. A doctor gives you three pills and tells you to take one every half hour. How long until they're gone?
  15. If there are three apples and you take away two, how many do you have?
  16. What word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
  17. What five-letter word becomes a different word when you remove its first letter, and again when you remove its second?
  18. Forwards I'm heavy, backwards I'm not. What am I?
  19. What word contains all 26 letters?
  20. I'm a word of letters three. Add two and fewer there will be. What word am I?
  21. You walk into a room with a match, a candle, an oil lamp and a fireplace. What do you light first?
  22. What's the next letter in this series: J, F, M, A, M, J, J, A, S, O, N...?
  23. A cowboy rode into town on Friday, stayed three nights, and left on Friday. How?
  24. What is half of two plus two?
  25. A bat and a ball cost one pound ten together. The bat costs one pound more than the ball. How much is the ball?
  26. How many times can you subtract 5 from 25?
  27. If an electric train is going north, which way is its smoke blowing?
  28. What's the only number spelled with its letters in alphabetical order?
  29. A man was outside in heavy rain with no umbrella and no hat, yet not a single hair on his head got wet. How?
  30. What comes next: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13...?
  31. You see a boat full of people, yet there isn't a single person on board. How?
  32. What's heavier, a kilo of feathers or a kilo of bricks?
  33. What do you get if you multiply all the numbers on a phone keypad?
  34. If you have me, you want to share me. If you share me, you no longer have me. What am I?
  35. What number do you get when you add 1,000 to 40, then 1,000, then 30, then 1,000, then 20, then 1,000, then 10?
  36. What can you serve but never eat?
  37. What is always coming but never arrives?
  38. What has a neck and no head, two arms and no hands?
  39. What room do ghosts avoid?
  40. What can't be put in a saucepan?
  41. What word looks the same upside down and backwards?
  42. If two's company and three's a crowd, what are four and five?
  43. What has 21 spots but no stains?
  44. Which is correct: "Seven and five is thirteen" or "seven and five are thirteen"?
  45. A man stands on one side of a river and his dog on the other. He calls the dog, who crosses without getting wet and without a bridge or boat. How?
  46. How many letters are in the alphabet?
  47. There's a one-storey house where everything is yellow: walls, doors, furniture. What colour are the stairs?
  48. What has many rings but no fingers?
  49. What English word has three consecutive double letters?
  50. What can you make that you can never see?
  51. If you drop me I'll crack, but smile at me and I'll smile back. What am I?
  52. A clock strikes six in five seconds. How long does it take to strike twelve?
  53. I'm the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, the start of every end and the end of every place. What am I?
  54. Which word in the dictionary is always spelled incorrectly?
  55. What is greater than everything, worse than the worst, the poor have it, the rich need it, and if you eat it you'll die?
  56. Three doctors say Robert is their brother. Robert says he has no brothers. Who is lying?
  57. What's the smallest number of socks you must take from a dark drawer of black and white socks to be sure of a matching pair?
  58. A man looks at a portrait and says: "Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man's father is my father's son." Who is in the portrait?
  59. If you have a bowl with six apples and you take away four, how many do you have?
  60. What's at the end of a rainbow?
  61. How far can a fox run into a forest?

Riddles are written for EscapePod. Many are new takes on classic riddles that have been told for generations.