Tricky Riddles and Answers

A carpenter, a lawyer, a homeless man, and a retail store employee are all playing poker together. The police are searching for a criminal in the area but have very little information to go on. All they know is the person's name and that they will be at this poker game. The police burst into the room where the four are playing and, without a word, immediately arrest the retail store employee. How did they know the employee was a criminal?

Answer: The retail employee is the only one wearing a nametag. Alternatively, the police knew the criminal's gender, and the retail employee was the only one matching that gender.

As a stone within a tree, I help words outlive thee. But if they push and pull me as I stand, the more I move, the less I am. What am I?

Answer: A pencil. The "stone" refers to graphite, which comes from rocks, and the "tree" is the wooden part of the pencil. Pushing and pulling describes the action of writing, and as you write, the pencil gets shorter.

A man lives on the 22nd floor of a luxurious apartment building. Every morning, he takes the elevator down to the ground floor and goes about his day. When he returns, he rides the elevator up to the 16th floor and then takes the stairs the rest of the way to his apartment on the 22nd floor. This is his daily routine unless someone else is in the elevator or it's raining outside. Why does he do this?

Answer: The man is too short to reach the buttons higher than the 16th floor. When someone else is in the elevator, they can press the button for him. If it's raining, he uses his umbrella to reach the higher buttons.

A king with no sons, daughters, or queen needs to choose an heir. He decides to select a child from the kingdom. He gives each child a seed and says, "Whoever grows the biggest, most beautiful plant will inherit my throne." At the end of the contest, all the children present magnificent plants—except for one little girl who has only a pot of soil. Surprisingly, the king declares her the heir. Why?

Answer: The seeds were fake. The girl was the only honest child who didn't replace the seed, so the king chose her. Alternatively, she planted her seed in the ground instead of the pot, allowing the plant to grow larger elsewhere.

One day, a man decides to go for a jog. He leaves his house and makes a left turn. He continues jogging and makes another left turn. He jogs a bit more and takes yet another left turn. After this last turn, he sees two men in masks waiting near his house. Why was he jogging, and who are the men?

Answer: He hit a home run in baseball. The "jog" is him running around the bases, and the two men are the catcher and the umpire.

To gain entry into a fort, a woman must answer the guard's question correctly. If she answers wrong, she'll be barred forever. Curious, she watches from a distance. A man approaches; the guard says "Six," and the man replies "Three" and is let in. Another person comes; the guard says "Twelve," and they reply "Six" and are admitted. Thinking she's figured it out, she walks up. The guard says "Ten," and she confidently answers "Five." But she's denied entry. Why?

Answer: The password is the number of letters in the word the guard says. "Six" has three letters, so the correct response is "Three." "Twelve" has six letters, so the response is "Six." "Ten" has three letters, so she should have said "Three."

A woman is about to leave on a business trip when she realizes she forgot important documents at her office. She rushes back, but the night watchman stops her, saying, "I just woke up from a dream that your plane will crash. Please don't go." She cancels her trip, and indeed, the plane crashes. She thanks the watchman by giving him $1,000 but then fires him. Why did she fire him?

Answer: The watchman admitted he was sleeping on the job, which is a fireable offense.

If you throw me out the window, you'll leave a grieving wife. But leave me in the middle of the door, and you might just save a life. What am I?

Answer: The letter "N." Remove the "n" from "window," and you get "widow," a grieving wife. Place "n" in the middle of "door," and you get "donor," someone who can save lives.

You have three chests, each containing 100 coins. One chest has 100 gold coins, the second has 100 silver coins, and the third has 50 gold and 50 silver coins. Each chest is labeled—one says "Gold," one says "Silver," and one says "Gold and Silver." However, all the labels are incorrect. How can you determine which chest contains the gold coins by picking only one coin from one chest?

Answer: Pick a coin from the chest labeled "Gold and Silver." Since all labels are wrong, this chest must contain only gold or only silver. If you pull out a gold coin, it's the gold chest. Then, you can deduce the contents of the other chests based on the incorrect labels.

A woman named Mrs. Whatt has five children. The first four are named Lala, Lele, Lili, and Lolo. What is the fifth child's name, and why do people laugh when they hear it?

Answer: The fifth child's name is Lulu. People laugh because all the children's names are repetitions of "La," "Le," "Li," "Lo," and "Lu," which sounds playful and amusing.