Riddles can be a great way to pass time on a boring road trip, or to test the waters of your pool of friends and see which of them is the smartest. Hard riddles can take the shape of anything from simple questions to paragraph-long logic problems that are best done with some graph paper and one of those giant pink erasers. Some of the impossible riddles collected here are sure to break your brain for at least a week, but once you solve them you\u2019ll feel like the smartest person on the planet. FYI, if you want to try your hand at these questions most people can\u2019t solve without any help, don\u2019t read the spoilers and answers written below every riddle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of the hardest riddles and brain teasers are incredibly simple questions that have been around for years. In the time that it\u2019s taken to find the Higgs Boson, build affordable electric cars, and hack an iPhone, the world is still having trouble figuring out who had Einstein\u2019s fish. If you\u2019re someone who likes to relax with a nice mystery, these hard brain teasers are the perfect way to spend an afternoon (or longer). Your IQ might even go up a few points, who knows?! If you think you\u2019re ready, start digging into these questions and riddles that most people can\u2019t solve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What can go up a chimney down but can\u2019t go down a chimney up?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer:
Apparently when this riddle was thought up, losing umbrellas via the chimney was a real problem. If you haven\u2019t figured it out yet, a closed umbrella can go up a chimney, but an open one can\u2019t go down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This four-letter word is always done tomorrow. We\u2019re out of tea, the ultimate sorrow! Without the eye, you owe me some money. No sugar, no nectar, no sweetness, no honey. Four-letter word, if by chance you choose, you can never win, you can only lose! What is the four-letter word?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer:
Let\u2019s break this down into some simpler language. What four-letter word carries the cliche of always starting tomorrow? A diet. But what about the other clues? Diet without the \u201cT\u201d is \u201cdie,\u201d the ultimate sorrow. Diet without the \u201cI\u201d is a phonetic-ish spelling of \u201cdebt.\u201d And if your diet is a success, it means you\u2019ve lost weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you eat me, my sender will eat you. What am I?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer:
To solve this you have to think about adjectives for \u201csend\u201d: throw, give, cast, etc. What do you cast? If you guessed a fishhook, then you figured out the answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jeff went skydiving near his house in Portland, OR. As a result, he saved his brother Stewart\u2019s life. Oddly, Stewart lived in Charlotte, NC, and hadn\u2019t spoken to his brother Jeff in 10 years. How did this unlikely miracle take place?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer:
Unfortunately, Jeff didn\u2019t make it while skydiving, but he was a sweetie and donated his kidney to Stewart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A king has three cups of water in front of him. One is full, one is half-full, and one is empty. What is the king\u2019s name?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer:
This one is closer to a joke than a riddle, but his name is King Phillip III (\u201cfill up three\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How can you rearrange the letters in \u201cnew door\u201d to create one word?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer:
Hopefully you\u2019ve already realized that the letters in \u201cnew door\u201d are an anagram for \u201cone word.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
7<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 There are five houses that are each a different color.
\u2022 There is a person of a different nationality in each house.
\u2022 The five owners drink a certain drink. They each smoke a certain brand of cigarettes and also have a certain pet. No owner has the same pet, smokes the same brand of cigarettes, or drinks the same drink.
\u2022 The question is, \u201cWho has the fish?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
CLUES <\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. The British man lives in the red house.
2. The Swedish man has a dog for a pet.
3. The Danish man drinks tea.
4. The green house is to the left of the white house.
5. The owner of the green house drinks coffee.
6. The person that smokes Pall Mall has a bird.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The person that lives in the middle house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The person that smokes Blend, lives next to the one that has a cat.
11. The person that has a horse lives next to the one that smokes Dunhill.
12. The one that smokes Bluemaster drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to a blue house.
15. The person that smokes Blend, has a neighbor that drinks water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer:
You have to form a grid to solve this riddle and deduce which person has which pet. If you\u2019re the kind of person who likes playing Clue, you\u2019ll love working this riddle out for yourself. But if you just want to know who had the fish, we\u2019ll happily SPOIL it for you and tell you it was the German.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
8<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How do you fit 10 horses into nine stalls?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer:
This riddle is more visual than some of the others, and the answer lies in actually typing out \u201cten horses\u201d and getting creative with the concept of a stall: [t][e][n][h][o][r][s][e][s].<\/p>\n\n\n\n
9<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A woman\u2019s mother dies, and at the funeral she meets a man who she falls madly in love with. She has never met this man or heard of him. That night she kills her sister. Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer:
For some reason, the woman didn\u2019t just ask for the guy\u2019s number. He works at the funeral home, and in order to see him again she killed her sister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
10<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A man is taking a trip and he\u2019s starting in Charleston then going to Houston. He will stay one night then head to Richmond and after that he\u2019ll go to Georgetown. He\u2019ll stay two nights then go to Raleigh and lastly travel to Sacramento. Where is he now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer:
Another riddle that\u2019s more of a trick than anything. The man still hasn\u2019t left for his trip so he\u2019s in Charleston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
11<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Teresa\u2019s daughter is my daughter\u2019s mother, what am I to Teresa?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer: If the person is a woman (as the multiple choice options often present), you would be Teresa\u2019s daughter. The \u201cTeresa\u2019s daughter\u201d is actually you. Another answer, if the person is a man, could be \u201cson-in-law,\u201d as Teresa\u2019s daughter could be your wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
12<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How is Barry 10 years old in 1870, but only five years old in 1875?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer:
Barry was born in 1880 BCE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
13<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three logicians named Alfred, Betty, and Carl go to a bar. Each person wants a beer but they don\u2019t know what the other two people want. The waitress asks each of them, in alphabetical order, \u201cDoes everyone want a beer?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What are each of their answers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer:
Another grid-style riddle that you won\u2019t be able to solve without some scrap paper. Let\u2019s work this out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alfred wants a beer, but he doesn\u2019t know whether Betty and Carl do. So Alfred doesn\u2019t know if everyone wants a beer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Betty hears Alfred say \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d If Alfred didn\u2019t want a beer, he would have said \u201cno,\u201d because Alfred would know if he wanted one or not, and if he didn\u2019t want one, not everybody would want a beer. Since Alfred said \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d instead of \u201cno,\u201d Betty knows Alfred wants a beer. Betty knows Betty wants a beer. But Betty doesn\u2019t know if Carl wants a beer, so Betty also says \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Similar to Betty, Carl hears the two previous responses. Since Carl knows Alfred and Betty both want beer (by the same logic that Betty knew Alfred wanted a beer) the only question left is if Carl wants a beer also. Carl knows he wants a beer, so he can safely answer that \u201cYes, everybody wants a beer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
14<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After dying, you enter a room with two doors, one leads to heaven, the other to hell. Next to each door is a bird. One bird always tells the truth, the other always lies. What can you ask the birds to find out which door leads to heaven?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer:
A confusing question if ever there was one, but simple if you\u2019ve read enough Greek mythology (where everyone is always asking weird backward questions). Basically, you want to ask the bird who tells the truth a question meant for the bird who lies so you can get a straight answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf I asked the other guardian which door leads to heaven, what would they tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are many variations of this riddle, but they all break down the same way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
15<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man who makes it doesn\u2019t want it, the man who buys it doesn\u2019t need it, and the man who needs it doesn\u2019t know it yet. What is it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer:
This riddle probably came to prominence during a world war, when the looming inevitability of mortality was around every corner. Quickly put yourself in the shoes of the man who doesn\u2019t know he\u2019ll be needing \u201cit\u201d and you realize that the answer is a coffin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
16<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I rest below the star above you and I, a few stories below me is an empty space. What am I?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer:
Look at your keyboard. Find the asterisk and the \u201cI.\u201d What\u2019s in between them? The number eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
17<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You are inside a square, glass room with all south-facing walls. You see a bear outside. What color is the bear?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer:
Another riddle where the answer is obvious after a little thought. The bear would be white because it\u2019s a polar bear hanging out at the North Pole \u2013 the only place where all the walls would face south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
18<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You walk into a pitch black room. All you have is a match and there is a candle, a stove, and a fireplace. You need to see around you in order to find your way out. What do you light first?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer:
More of a trick than a riddle, but if you\u2019re an uncle this is the kind of stuff you need to know. The first thing you would light is the match, without that you can\u2019t light anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
19<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I met an old man on the London Bridge. As the sun set on the ridge, he tipped his hat and drew his name and cheated at the guessing game. What was the man\u2019s name?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Answer:
The riddler includes his name in the riddle: \u201cAND DREW his name\u201d; the man\u2019s name is Andrew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Riddles can be a great way to pass time on a boring road trip, or to test the waters of your pool of friends and see which of them is … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n