Recently, I read a BuzzFeed article that claimed to solve a riddle that’s been “melting everyone’s minds” (their words, not mine).
The riddle went like this: If Teresa’s daughter is my daughter’s mother, who am I to Teresa? The answer? I am Teresa’s daughter.
While I can’t exactly say that this riddle melted my mind, I did admittedly have to pause and think about this riddle for a second. After I figured out the answer to this riddle, I went a Google-search spree looking for more mind boggling riddles.
Here are five of the thousands of riddles that would make child prodigy Jaden Smith proud. Excuse me while I rest my brain.
1. What comes once in a minute and twice in a moment, but never in a thousand?
Answer: the letter ‘M’
2. A young woman attends her mother’s funeral. At the funeral, she meets a mysterious man and immediately falls in love. After the funeral, she desperately searches for the man. Several days later, she kills her sister. Why did she kill her sister?
Answer: Because if she kills her sister and holds a funeral for her, she might meet the man again.
3. A family consists of two mothers, two daughters, one grandmother and one granddaughter. How many people are in this family?
Answer: Three. The grandmother is the mother to her daughter. Her daughter is the mother to her granddaughter.
4. A farmer must cross a river with his wolf, sheep and head of cabbage. He can only take one item across the river at a time. If he leaves the wolf and sheep together, the wolf will eat the sheep. If he leaves the sheep and cabbage together, the sheep will eat the cabbage. How can he carry all three across?
Answer: First, he should take the sheep across the river. He then can leave the sheep on the other side and go back to get wolf. He drops the wolf off on the other side and takes the sheep with him. He then travels back to the original side with the sheep, drops the sheep off, picks up the cabbage and travels back with the cabbage. He drops the cabbage off at the other side with the wolf and goes back to get to the sheep.
5. Look for your name.
This one is more of a puzzle than a riddle, but it might still give you a reason to pause.
Answer: Don’t actually look for your name. Look for “your name.” ;)
