Hard Riddles
These hard riddles favor tricky riddles and logic riddles that reward a second look. Read slowly, then reveal the answer when you are stuck.
1. A farmer counts seventeen sheep. All but nine run away. How many sheep are left?
Answer: Nine sheep remain.
2. I start eternity, finish time and space, begin every end, and finish every place. Which letter am I?
Answer: The letter E.
3. Two fathers and two sons go fishing. Each catches one fish, yet only three fish come home. How?
Answer: Three people: a grandfather, a father, and a son.
4. A rooster sits on a barn roof. Which way does an egg roll if it “lays” one?
Answer: It doesn’t — roosters do not lay eggs.
5. What can you hold in your left hand that you can never hold in your right hand?
Answer: Your right elbow.
6. I am an odd number. Remove one letter and I become even. What number-word am I?
Answer: Seven (remove the S).
7. I have one eye, yet I never blink or see. Seamstresses know me well. What am I?
Answer: A needle.
8. I am always hungry and must be fed. Touch me with a finger and it may turn red. What am I?
Answer: Fire.
9. What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter M.
10. I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but wind can wake me. What am I?
Answer: An echo.
11. What belongs to you but other people use it more than you do?
Answer: Your name.
12. What is cut on a table, but is never eaten?
Answer: A deck of cards.
13. How many 2-cent stamps are in a dozen?
Answer: Twelve stamps.
14. What word is always spelled wrong in the dictionary?
Answer: Wrong.
15. What kind of coat is always wet when you put it on?
Answer: A coat of paint.
16. What has a neck but no throat, and two arms but no hands?
Answer: A shirt.
17. You bury me when I am alive and dig me up when I am dead. What am I?
Answer: A plant.
18. What can you keep after giving it to someone?
Answer: Your word.
19. What flies when it is born, lies when it is alive, and runs when it is dead?
Answer: A flag.
20. What has four fingers and a thumb, but is not alive?
Answer: A glove.
21. What can jump higher than a house?
Answer: Anything that jumps — houses cannot jump.
22. I turn once around the sun each year, yet I am not a dancer. What am I?
Answer: The Earth.
23. What starts with an E, ends with an E, but usually contains only one letter?
Answer: An envelope.
24. What has cities, towns, and roads, but no people?
Answer: A globe.
25. Take one away from nine and leave twenty. How?
Answer: Write IX, remove I, leave XX.
26. What can you hold without ever touching it with your hands?
Answer: A conversation.
27. I have ears but cannot hear, and I grow in rows on a farm. What am I?
Answer: Corn.
28. What goes up when rain comes down?
Answer: An umbrella.
29. The more you have of me, the less you see. What am I?
Answer: Darkness.
30. What has wheels and flies, but is not an aircraft?
Answer: A garbage truck.
31. What word looks the same upside down and backward?
Answer: SWIMS.
32. What has a ring but no finger?
Answer: A telephone.
33. What is easy to get into, but hard to get out of?
Answer: Trouble.
34. I have no life, but I can die. What am I?
Answer: A battery.
35. What has a heart that doesn’t beat?
Answer: An artichoke.
More riddles
Browse another collection, return to the riddles hub, or try our brain teasers.