10 Clever Riddles to Warm Up Your Brain

Here are some clever riddles that will leave you scratching your head. Can you solve them?

1. The Horse Riddle

British scientists found that during an average day, a horse had one pair of legs travel a total of 18 miles, while the other pair covered 19 miles. Are they really out of their minds, or can this really be true?

2. A Little Boy and a Tree

A little boy 100 centimeters tall put a nail into a tree as a mark for his own height. Three years later, he returned to the tree and put another nail at the point of his height. During this time, the boy has grown 20 centimeters taller, and the tree has grown 40 centimeters taller. What is the distance between the nails?

3. The Calendar Riddle

Three Fridays of a certain month have fallen on even-numbered dates. What day of the week was the eighteenth of that month?

4. The Snake and the Turtle

The snake is 110 years old. “How old are you?”, the snake asked the turtle. The turtle answered, “My age was 10 times greater than was yours when I was just as old as you are now.” How old is the turtle?

5. The Family Portrait Riddle

A man is looking at a picture. ‘Whose picture are you looking at?” someone asked him. The man answered. “I was growing up being the only one in my family. And yet, the father of the person in the picture is the son of my father.” Whose portrait was the man looking at?

6. The Dragonfly Riddle

Here’s a fun and clever riddle just in time before vacations start. The dragonfly spends half the time of each single summer day (24 hours) on sleeping, one-third of each summer day on dancing, and one-sixth of each summer day on singing. The rest of the summertime it decided to devote to preparing for the winter.

How many hours has the dragonfly spent on actually preparing for the winter season during a summer day?

7. The King and His Daughter

The king wanted to give his daughter, the princess to an arranged marriage, but the princess did not want that. So the king said that the princess can herself decide her fate.

At the public square, she will need to draw a rock from a sack, either a white or black rock. If she draws a black rock – it will be the king’s decision whom to marry, and she draws a white one – she can decide to marry whomever she wants.

But the maid told the princess that the king was not going to play fair and would put two black rocks in the sack. The princess could not make the act of discovering two black rocks inside the sacked public for fearing people will find out that their ruler was prone to injustice.

But the next morning, she did something that saved her from an arranged and unhappy marriage. What did she do?

8. The Wise Man Riddle

There once was a wise man in a town who had not been favored by the rulers of the city. It was decided to execute him. He was told that he could himself decide whether he lives or dies by his own last words.

If his words turn out to be a lie, he will be hanged. If the words turn out to be true, he will be drowned. The wise man thought for a bit and said something that saved him from being executed. What did he say?

9. The White Hat Riddle

Two wise men were brought to the palace to determine who is wiser in the following test: in a dark room, from three bell-shaped hats, two white and one black, one will be placed on their head.

And then they will stand facing each other in a room without mirrors. The first of the two wise men who correctly names the color of the hat he is wearing will be recognized as the wisest.

And so, the wise men stood for a while, and each of them had a white hat on, and each of them only knew that the other one was wearing a white hat. Suddenly, one of them exclaimed: “I am wearing a white hat!” What would be this wise man’s way of thinking?

10. The Office Murder Riddle

A man is found murdered in his office. The body of the man is leaning over the desk, and a revolver is still clamped n his hand. There is a voice recorder on the table.

Police turn on the voice recorder of the deceased and immediately hear a recorded message: “I cannot live anymore. Life no longer has any meaning for me …”. After that, the sound of a shot is heard. Why do you think the police immediately concluded that the man was murdered, and this was not a suicide?

Solving clever riddles such as these ones is a great way to train your brain and have some fun, too!