The Riddle Dilemma

By: Justin Zablocki (author, Zablocki Bros. LLC) on October 29th, 2013 12:00 AM.

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Riddles are fun and a good way to work your brain on a daily basis, but are most people using it to improve their brain or their ego? When you hear a riddle you have already heard in the past do you say you've heard it or do you act like you thought of the answer all by yourself? When most people hear riddles they have already heard they quickly regurgitate the answer as if they came up with it on their own and should be praised for their great intellect. Obviously this is unfounded praise and a cheap way to boost other people's view of you. Most riddles that are out there have been repeated time and time again and it seems like it is more rare to find somebody that hasn't heard them than has heard them. Recently this riddle made its way across Facebook:

It's 3 a.m., the doorbell rings and you wake up. Unexpected visitors! It's your parents and they are here for breakfast. You have strawberry jam, honey, wine, bread and cheese. What is the first thing you open?

The answer to this riddle is the door to let your parents in. Most people know this, but some people have come to believe that the answer to this riddle is "your eyes." This may seem like an appealing answer but it actually doesn't satisfy the riddle since you open your eyes prior to the question and it does not say that you have opened the door yet technically. Regardless, almost everybody that hears this riddle is very opinionated and says the answer as if they came up with it themselves. Aside from this, the answer of "your eyes" would be ridiculous because we are constantly opening and closing our eyes. An answer that could be just as reasonable is to say you would have to open your mouth first, which is obviously not a good answer. By becoming technical to this extent you open up a world of possibilities, making the answers almost infinite. Aside from logic, the answer of the riddle was meant to be the door, and really this is what cuts the ambiguity of the riddle.

Some other great but all too common riddles:

What gets wetter as it dries?

A man and his son are in a terrible accident and are rushed to the hospital in critical care. The doctor looks at the boy and exclaims "I can't operate on this boy, he's my son!" How could this be?

Does a ton of feathers or a ton of bricks weigh more?

If you ask most people over the age of ten any of these riddles you are almost guaranteed to get the correct answer from them.

For some uncommon riddles visit the good riddles and answers section.