PaheliHow to solve riddles: seven ways to think
A riddle is a small trap for a habit of mind. It describes an ordinary thing in such a way that your first thought runs in the wrong direction. Solving riddles is therefore less about knowledge than about noticing where you have been led, and stepping back. The seven methods below cover most of the riddles on this site, and most of the riddles you will ever be asked.
1. Take the words literally
Many riddles hide nothing at all; they depend on your reading more into them than is there. "What has hands but cannot clap?" Your mind goes to people. Stay with the words: what else is said to have hands? A clock. When a riddle sounds impossible, ask what each word could mean in its plainest sense.
2. Look for the word with two meanings
English and Hindi are both full of words that do double duty. A table has legs, a needle has an eye, a river has a mouth and a bed, a comb has teeth. Riddle makers love these. When a riddle gives a body part to something that is clearly not alive, run through the objects that borrow that word.
3. Make a list of the clues
A "What am I?" riddle usually gives three or four clues. Do not try to solve it in one jump. Take the clues one at a time and ask what fits each; then look for the thing that fits all. "I am full of holes, yet I hold water." Things with holes: a net, a sieve, a sponge. Which of them holds water? The sponge.
4. Ask what the riddle wants you to assume
Trick questions work by planting an assumption. "A man went out in the rain without an umbrella or a hat, and not a hair on his head got wet. How?" You assumed that he had hair. Whenever an answer seems impossible, hunt for the thing you took for granted: the time of day, the number of people, the meaning of a name.
5. In number riddles, write it down
Maths riddles are rarely hard sums. They are easy sums wrapped in confusing words. Take a pen. Give names to the unknown things, write what the riddle says in short lines, and try small numbers. Then check your answer against every sentence of the riddle; a right answer satisfies all of them, not most of them.
6. Listen to the sound
Word riddles often turn on letters and sounds rather than meanings. "Which letter is a drink?" The letter T. Read such riddles aloud, slowly. If the riddle talks about "the beginning of the end" or "the middle of the night", look at the letters of those very words.
7. Think about everyday things first
Traditional riddles, and the Hindi verse riddles on this site, are nearly always about things found in every home, kitchen, field and sky: a lamp, a broom, an onion, a shadow, the moon. If you are lost, walk through your house in your mind, room by room. The answer is probably in one of them.
When you are stuck
- Read it again, aloud. The ear catches what the eye has skipped.
- Change one assumption. What if it is not a person? Not alive? Not solid?
- Leave it for a few minutes. The answer often arrives while you are doing something else.
- Ask for a hint, not the answer. A first letter keeps the pleasure of solving. The answer ends it.
Why riddles are good for children
A child who solves riddles is practising several school skills at once: careful listening, vocabulary, holding several clues in mind, and checking an answer against the question. Just as useful is the habit of being cheerfully wrong: guessing, missing, laughing and guessing again. Start young children on the easy riddles for kids or बच्चों की आसान पहेलियाँ, and move on to What am I? riddles when they begin to enjoy the hunt.
Ready to try the methods? Play a round of ten riddles, or test method 4 on the tricky riddles.