Riddle: A girl got killed. The killer took her iPhone EarPods, piano, and money. What did the killer take first?
Answer: Her life
Riddle Explanation + Meaning
The correct answer to this riddle is her life.
This riddle uses a play on words to mislead the reader into focusing on the material items mentioned - the iPhone EarPods, piano, and money.
However, the real answer lies outside of these items.
Before taking any of her possessions, the killer first took the girl's life.
This shift from material items to something much more significant, her life, is what gives the riddle its twist and makes the solution unexpected.
It's a reminder to look beyond the obvious and consider all possible angles when solving problems or puzzles.
Why the answer is her life
This is a trick question that works through misdirection. The riddle gives you a list of things, and lists make us want to sort, rank, or pick one of them. So people start comparing the EarPods, the piano, and the money, trying to decide which would be grabbed first. The answer is hiding outside the list, in the setup sentence itself. The order of events is the whole puzzle.
The piano is a clever distraction because it is so large that it seems silly, which makes you think the riddle is testing your common sense about carrying things. Some people argue for the money, since it is small and valuable. Those answers show you were following the list, which is exactly what the riddle hoped. Talking about why the list felt so convincing is a useful lesson in how the way a question is asked can steer our thinking.
Where this riddle comes from
This riddle is modern, since it mentions EarPods, and its original author is unknown. It is a trick question, a kind of riddle that hides the answer in plain sight. Because the theme is dark, the riddles below use the same skill of reading the question carefully, with friendly topics.
3 more riddles like this one
How many months have 28 days?
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Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the tallest mountain in the world?
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If a rooster lays an egg on the very top of a roof, which side will it roll down?
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How to solve riddles like this
- Reread the first sentence slowly. Trick questions often give away the answer before the list begins.
- When a riddle hands you a list, ask whether the answer could be something not on the list at all.
- Check every fact the question assumes. If one assumption is false, like a rooster laying eggs, that is the trick.
- Answer the exact question asked, not the question you expected to hear.