Put on your detective hat. These 60 mystery riddles with answers start with easy “how is that possible?” puzzles, move on to detective riddles where you spot the lie in a suspect’s story, then the classic murder mystery riddles people have been puzzling over for decades, and finally logic mysteries for real brain-benders.
Every answer is hidden and explained – read the case, make your guess, then tap “Show answer”.
Contents
- Easy Mystery Riddles
- Detective Riddles: Spot the Lie
- Classic Murder Mystery Riddles
- Logic Mysteries & Brain Teasers
- How to Play a Mystery Riddle Game
- More Logic Puzzles & Riddles
- Frequently Asked Questions
Easy Mystery Riddles
1. A man pushes his car to a hotel and tells the owner he’s bankrupt. Why?
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Answer: He’s playing Monopoly.
2. A woman shoots her husband, holds him under water for five minutes, then hangs him. An hour later they go out to dinner together. How?
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Answer: She’s a photographer – she took his photo, developed it in water and hung it up to dry.
3. A man lives on the 10th floor. Going down, he takes the lift all the way. Coming up, he rides to the 7th floor and walks the rest – unless it’s raining or someone is with him. Why?
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Answer: He’s too short to reach the 10th-floor button. On rainy days he uses his umbrella; otherwise he asks someone to press it.
4. A man walks into a bar and asks for a glass of water. The bartender pulls out a toy gun and shouts “Bang!” The man says thank you and leaves. Why?
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Answer: He had hiccups – the scare cured them.
5. A cowboy rides into town on Friday, stays for three days and leaves on Friday. How?
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Answer: His horse is called Friday.
6. A mother has seven children and half of them are boys. How is that possible?
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All of them are boys – so half are boys, and so is the other half.
7. A boy and his father are in a car accident. At the hospital the surgeon says, “I can’t operate – he’s my son!” Who is the surgeon?
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Answer: His mother.
8. Two girls were born to the same mother, on the same day, in the same year – but they aren’t twins. How?
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Answer: They’re two of a set of triplets.
9. How can a man go eight days without sleep?
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Answer: He sleeps at night.
10. A truck driver goes the wrong way down a one-way street, right past a police officer, and isn’t stopped. Why?
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Answer: He was walking, not driving.
11. What can you hold in your right hand but never in your left hand?
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Answer: Your left hand (or your left elbow).
12. A plane crashes exactly on the border of the USA and Canada. Where do they bury the survivors?
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Nowhere – you don’t bury survivors!
13. Which room has no doors, no windows and no walls?
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Answer: A mushroom.
14. What gets wetter the more it dries?
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Answer: A towel.
15. What has keys but can’t open a single lock?
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Answer: A piano.
Detective Riddles: Spot the Lie
Each suspect’s story has one detail that gives them away. Can you find it before the detective does?
16. Mrs. Lee’s diamond ring is stolen on a Sunday morning. The cook was making breakfast, the gardener was watering plants and the maid says she was collecting the mail. Who is lying?
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Answer: The maid – there’s no mail delivery on Sunday.
17. A house owner says a burglar smashed his window to get in. The detective sees all the broken glass lying outside the house. What does it tell him?
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Answer: The window was broken from the inside – the owner faked the break-in.
18. A suspect says, “I was at home all day on September 31st.” Why does the detective smile?
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September has only 30 days.
19. A man says he has been home all evening and hasn’t used his car in days. The detective touches the hood. What gives him away?
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Answer: The hood is still warm – the car was just driven.
20. A thief says he hid the stolen cash between pages 45 and 46 of a book. Why does the detective know he’s lying?
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Answer: Pages 45 and 46 are the front and back of the same sheet – there’s nothing “between” them.
21. A witness says she clearly saw the thief’s face by the light of the full moon. That night was a new moon. What’s wrong?
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Answer: During a new moon there is no moonlight – she couldn’t have seen anything by it.
22. The detective says, “A purse was stolen in the park.” The suspect replies, “I never touched her purse!” Why is he arrested?
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Answer: Nobody told him the purse belonged to a woman – only the thief would know.
23. A suspect says he watched TV all evening and didn’t hear a thing. The whole street had a power cut from 6 to 10 p.m. What’s the problem?
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Answer: With no electricity, he couldn’t have watched TV.
24. A man says he just walked two miles through fresh snow to report a theft. His shoes and trouser legs are completely dry. What does the detective think?
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Answer: He didn’t walk through any snow – he’s lying about where he came from.
25. The owner says the thief climbed in through the window. The windowsill is covered in a thick, untouched layer of dust. What does that mean?
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Nobody climbed through that window – the dust would have been disturbed.
26. A man says he has just come back from two weeks camping in the desert sun. His skin is as pale as paper. What does the detective suspect?
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Answer: He wasn’t in the desert – two weeks in the desert sun would have left him tanned.
Classic Murder Mystery Riddles
These famous lateral-thinking mysteries look impossible until you see the missing piece.
27. Two friends order the same iced drink. One gulps hers down and goes home. The other sips slowly and dies. Both drinks were poisoned. How did the first one survive?
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Answer: The poison was in the ice. She drank before the ice melted.
28. Two dead men are found in a cabin in the woods. There are no footprints in the snow around it and the door is locked from the inside. What happened?
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Answer: The “cabin” is the cabin of a crashed plane.
29. A man is found dead in the middle of the desert, holding half a matchstick. What happened?
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Answer: He was in a hot-air balloon that was losing height. The passengers drew matches to decide who jumps – he drew the short one.
30. Romeo and Juliet are found dead on the floor, surrounded by water and broken glass. What happened?
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Answer: They’re goldfish – their bowl fell and broke.
31. A lighthouse keeper switches off the light to get some sleep. The next morning he hears the news and is horrified. Why?
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Answer: Without the light, a ship crashed into the rocks in the night.
32. Before he died, the victim scratched the number “710” on the floor. The suspects are a baker, a teacher and an oil-rig worker. Who did it?
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Answer: Turn “710” upside down – it reads “OIL”. The oil-rig worker did it.
33. A woman buys a new pair of high heels, wears them to work and is killed that same day. What was her job?
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Answer: She was a knife-thrower’s assistant – the heels made her taller than usual.
34. A man is found dead in a room with 53 bicycles. Why was he killed?
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Answer: They’re Bicycle playing cards – a deck has 52, so he was caught cheating.
35. A circus performer is walking the high wire blindfolded. The music suddenly stops and he falls. Why?
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Answer: He was a tightrope walker who used the end of the music as the signal that he’d reached the platform.
36. A man in full scuba-diving gear is found dead in the middle of a burnt forest, miles from the sea. What happened?
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Answer: A firefighting plane scooped him up with a load of seawater and dropped him on the fire.
37. A man is found dead in a field next to an unopened backpack. What happened?
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Answer: The backpack was his parachute – it didn’t open.
38. A woman commits a crime in front of witnesses and is found guilty, but the judge says she can’t be sent to prison. Why?
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Answer: She has a conjoined twin – jailing her would punish her innocent sister too.
Logic Mysteries & Brain Teasers
39. You face two doors: one leads to freedom, one to a dungeon. One guard always lies, one always tells the truth, and you don’t know which is which. You can ask one guard one question. What do you ask?
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Answer: Ask either guard: “Which door would the other guard say leads to freedom?” Then take the other door.
40. Three switches downstairs control one light bulb upstairs. You can go upstairs only once. How do you find the right switch?
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Answer: Turn switch 1 on for a few minutes, then off. Turn switch 2 on and go up. On = switch 2, off but warm = switch 1, off and cold = switch 3.
41. You have two ropes that each take exactly one hour to burn, but they burn unevenly. How do you measure 45 minutes?
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Answer: Light rope A at both ends and rope B at one end. When A burns out (30 min), light the other end of B – it burns out 15 minutes later.
42. You have 9 balls that look the same; one is heavier. With a balance scale, how do you find it in just two weighings?
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Answer: Weigh 3 against 3. If they balance, the heavy ball is in the other 3; otherwise it’s in the heavier group. Then weigh 1 against 1 from that group.
43. A man looks at a portrait and says: “Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man’s father is my father’s son.” Who is in the portrait?
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Answer: His son.
44. A woman in a small town married over 20 men, never divorced, and broke no law. How?
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Answer: She’s a priest or wedding officiant.
45. A man builds a house with all four sides facing south. A bear walks past. What colour is it?
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White – the house is at the North Pole, so it’s a polar bear.
46. “The day before yesterday I was 21, and next year I’ll be 24.” When is this true?
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Answer: When said on January 1st by someone whose birthday is December 31st.
47. How can you drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it?
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Answer: Any way you like – concrete floors are very hard to crack.
48. What appears once in a minute, twice in a moment and never in a thousand years?
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Answer: The letter M.
49. A butcher is 5 ft 10 in tall and wears size 13 shoes. What does he weigh?
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Meat.
50. How many birthdays does the average person have?
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Answer: Just one – everything else is an anniversary of it.
51. Some months have 30 days and some have 31. How many have 28?
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All twelve.
52. Mary’s father has five daughters: Nana, Nene, Nini and Nono. What’s the fifth daughter’s name?
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Mary.
53. A man calls his dog from the other side of a river. The dog crosses without a bridge or boat and doesn’t get wet. How?
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Answer: The river was frozen.
54. There are three apples and you take away two. How many do you have?
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Two – the ones you took.
55. What can travel all around the world while staying in a corner?
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Answer: A postage stamp.
56. Forward I’m heavy, backward I’m not. What am I?
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Answer: A ton – backward it’s “not”.
57. How can a pocket be empty and still have something in it?
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Answer: It has a hole in it.
58. A detective finds a man dead at his desk. There’s a gun in his hand and a cassette recorder playing his voice: “I can’t go on…” then a bang. The detective calls it murder at once. Why?
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Answer: The tape was at the start when he pressed play – someone had to rewind it after the shot.
59. Everyone in the house says they were asleep when the vase broke at midnight, but one person says, “I heard it fall at 12 o’clock exactly.” Who’s the best suspect?
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Answer: The person who knew the exact time – if they were asleep, how did they know it was midnight?
60. What has cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and water but no fish?
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Answer: A map.
How to Play a Mystery Riddle Game
- One person is the “game master” and reads the mystery aloud.
- Everyone else may ask yes-or-no questions only.
- Give a point to whoever solves it, and a bonus point if they solve it in under 10 questions.
- Start with the easy section, save the murder mysteries for when everyone is warmed up.
More Logic Puzzles & Riddles
- Logic Puzzles with Answers
- 50 Hardest Riddles in the World
- Riddles for Adults
- The Missing Dollar Riddle – explained step by step
- Fox, Rabbit and Cabbage – river-crossing puzzle
- Halloween Movie Trivia
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a mystery riddle?
A short story that seems impossible – the answer explains how it happened. Most mystery riddles depend on one hidden detail, like “Romeo and Juliet” being goldfish.
What is the most famous murder mystery riddle?
Probably “Romeo and Juliet are found dead on the floor, surrounded by water and broken glass.” They’re goldfish whose bowl broke.
Are these mystery riddles good for kids?
The easy riddles and detective riddles are great for kids aged 9 and up. The murder mystery riddles are better for teens and adults.
How do you solve detective riddles?
Look for the one detail that couldn’t be true – a date that doesn’t exist, a warm car hood, dry shoes in the snow – and ask what it proves.