The first known riddles appeared in Babylon! And even today, they’re still an excellent opportunity to spend time with friends and to test our capabilities. Riddles are not only interesting, but they’re also useful to people of all ages. They can do all kinds of things like help to improve a child’s vocabulary and help the elderly to avoid dementia.

Bright Side invites you to get together with the whole family and try to solve all the riddles together.

1. Which door is safe?

One morning, little Mary got trapped in a castle in Costa Rica. There were 4 doors, but only one led to freedom. The doors opened up to the following:

Which door should she choose?

2. The Eiffel Tower

Guy de Maupassant hated the Eiffel Tower. So every day, he had lunch in the one place where it couldn’t be seen. What was that place?

3. A murder in a sauna

4 friends regularly visited the sauna together. They always brought something with them. Jack, a musician, took an iPod with him to listen to music. Steve, a banker, took a thermos to drink out of. Patrick and Michael were lawyers and took documents to read.

One day, Patrick was found dead. He was killed by a sharp object. Policemen came immediately and conducted an investigation. They found nothing.

How could this have happened?

4. An angry wife

Pete called his wife and said that he would be at home at 8. He came at 8:05. They had no special plans but still, the wife was angry because of his being late.

Why did she get so mad?

5. A fly in the coffee

Brendon sat in the coffee shop and found a fly in his drink. He asked the waitress to bring him another coffee. After he’d received a new cup and taken a sip he got angry. Brendon realized that it was the same cup of coffee that he had in the first place.

How did he know he had the same cup of coffee?

6. A broken statuette

John was alone at home and heard that something had fallen in his wife’s room. He entered and saw that her favorite statuette was broken. At that moment someone ran out of the room.

John tried to catch up with the stranger. But in the street the lenses on his eyeglasses fogged up because of cold weather. He could see nothing, giving the stranger the opportunity to disappear.

John told this story to a policeman but he refused to investigate the case. The cop asked him to stop lying and admit that it was he who had broken the statuette.

Was John’s story actually fake?

7. Mr. James is dead.

Mr. James was found dead in his room. The room had no window and the door was locked. The only 4 people who had a key to the room were questioned.

Sophia the maid: “I came to wake up Mr. James; when I saw him dead, I screamed!”

John the butler: “When I heard the scream, I ran into the room, turned on the light and saw Mr. James with a knife in his neck.”

Sarah the governess: “I rushed up alongside John; when he turned on the light, the room was all bloody.”

Jack the cook: “I was prepping breakfast and didn’t see anything.”

Who did it?

8. A familiar stranger

Stan met a stranger whom he’d never seen before. Stan just heard about him and no descriptions of his appearance were ever mentioned. He wasn’t famous. Nevertheless, Stan understood immediately who the guy was.

How was this possible?

9. A closed car

A man has been shot in a car. There were no traces of gunpowder on his clothes. That meant that a murderer wasn’t inside the car while shooting him. There were no bullet holes in the car. Besides, all the doors and windows were closed.

How could they have killed him?

10. A key to treasure

An adventurer found a chest with treasures in a cave guarded by a pirate. He had 3 keys that were golden, silver and black. But only one of them could open the chest. The pirate would give the adventurer only one chance to reach the treasure.

If he chose the right key, he would take the chest. If he was wrong, the pirate would kill him right there. The only clue was this cipher: TGK HOE ELY DEN.

Which is the right key?

How many riddles could you solve? Share your results in the comments.

Illustrated by Natalia Tylosova for Bright Side

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