9 Interesting Yet Hard Riddles for Adults with Answers

The following riddles will have you cracking your brain trying to figure out how a minister unraveled a King's parable and deciphering who the man in the mask is who keeps running. Be ready to put your thinking caps on!

Sometimes, people need something to entertain them and keep their minds busy, and that's why Reddit users have a section where they ask for riddles. The social media users didn't disappoint as they pulled out the best mind-boggling brain twisters they could find.

In this piece, we'll look at nine different riddles meant for adults. The answers to each one will be added below all the riddles, so feel free to challenge yourself and your friends by seeing who can figure out the most.

The first tricky riddle goes like this:

1. Tread on the living; they make not a mumble.

Tread on the dead, they mutter and grumble.

The second riddle was more like a story that read:

2. A man wants his house built and hires a carpenter to do the job. It will take the contractor a week to complete it, with the man telling the carpenter that he only has a seven lb. brick of gold. He also offers to pay the carpenter when the house is done.

The carpenter disagrees and instead says he'll take the gold up front. The man disagrees and notes how the contractor could run away with his money without doing the work. The two men eventually agree that the man will pay the carpenter evenly daily for the whole week. However, the man can only make two cuts into his gold bar. So how does he pay the carpenter evenly over seven days while only being allowed to cut his seven lb. bar twice?

The next riddle has a religious take and is called King Solomon's parable:

3. A powerful and wealthy King named Solomon chose to put Benaiah Ben Yehoyada, his most loyal and trusted minister, to the test. The royal asks Benaiah to fulfill the impossible task of finding a ring, knowing well that the alleged magical gem doesn't exist. Solomon tells Benaiah this about the imaginary ring:

"If a happy man looks at it, he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy."

The royal says he wishes to wear the ring for Sukkot, six months away. After months of searching, and now that it was the night before Sukkot, Benaiah finds himself walking in the poorest neighborhood of Jerusalem. There he comes across a jeweler, who, when asked if he's heard of such a ring, produces a plain gold one and engraves it.

Benaiah reads the inscription and smiles, and manages to return just in time on the eve of Sukkot to give the King the ring. Solomon laughs but, after reading the inscription, becomes very sad. What was engraved on it?

The following riddle is also about a King who put the kingdom's children to task:

4. A King with no Queen, sons, or daughters must decide who'll take the throne after his death. To accomplish this, the royal decides to give all the kingdom's children a single seed. The challenge is that whichever child returns with the biggest and the most beautiful plant will earn the throne; or the kingdom.

At the end of the contest, all the children came to the palace showing off their enormous and stunning plants. After looking at their pots, the King finally chose a little girl as the next Queen despite her being the only one with an empty pot. Why did he choose her over the other children?

5. This one might be a bit tricky for some:

A man runs away from home. He turns left and keeps running, and after some time, he turns left again and keeps running. The man later turns left once more before running back home. Who was the man in the mask?

Maths geniuses need to come closer for this one:

6. Business was booming for a hotel manager when he welcomed three guests who wished to check into a hotel room. The businessman informed them their bill would be $30, meaning each person had to $10. However, later, the manager realized the bill should've been $25, so to rectify this, he gave the bellhop five one-dollar bills to return to the guests.

While walking to the guests' room, it occurred to him that he couldn't equally divide the five one-dollar bills among the three people. However, since the guests weren't aware of the revised bill, the bellhop gave each one $1 back and kept $2 as a tip for himself.

Since each person received $1, it meant they only paid $9, bringing the total paid to the hotel to $27. The bellhop kept $2, which, when added to the $27, comes to $29. So, if the guests originally paid $30, what happened to the remaining $1?

Get ready to have your mind scrabbled with this riddle:

7. There is a windowless room with only a single door. Inside the room is a lamp; when the lamp is on, light doesn't escape the room. Outside the room are three switches; one operates the lamp.

You can use the switches in any order for any number of times. The door can only be opened once, and you can immediately know which switch turns on the light after you enter the room. How is that possible?

The next riddle's answer is quite funny:

8. One morning, a man is on his way out for a business trip before realizing he left some paperwork at his office. He runs back to his office to get it and comes across the night watchman. The security guard stops him, saying,

"Sir, don't get on the plane. Last night, I dreamt it would crash, and everyone died!"

The businessman takes the night watchman's word and cancels his trip. True to the security guard's word, the plane crashes, and everyone dies. The next day, the man awards the watchman a $1000 reward for saving his life, leaving the security elated. However, the watchman's joy turns to sadness when the man then fires him. Why did he fire the watchman who saved his life?

Turn on the first switch and wait a few minutes, then turn it off and the second on.

Some Reddit users found this riddle a bit too easy; let's see how you fare:

9. The maker doesn't want it.

The buyer doesn't use it.

The user doesn't know it.

What is it?

Answers to the Riddles:

1. Leaves.

2. After the first day, the man pays the carpenter with 1 lb. of gold. The second day, the man takes the 1 lb. piece back and gives the carpenter the 2 lb. piece. On the third day, the man provides the carpenter with the 1 lb. piece and lets him keep the 2 lb. piece. On day four, the man takes the 1 lb. piece and 3 lb. piece back in exchange for the 4 lb. piece.

However, on the fifth day, the man lets the carpenter keep the 4 lb. pieces and gives him an additional 1 lb. piece to make a total of 5 lb. On day six, the man takes back the 1 lb. piece in exchange for a 2 lb. piece, leaving the carpenter's total as 6 lb.

The last and seventh day sees the man giving the carpenter 1 lb., 2 lb., and 4 lb., making the total 7 lbs. And that's how the carpenter was paid 1 lb. daily for seven days.

3. This, too, shall pass.

4. They were fake seeds. All the other children cheated.

5. The catcher.

6. The $30 isn't relevant because the guests didn't pay that amount. They each paid $9, giving the total of $27. The trio paid $25 to the hotel and $2 to the bellhop.

7. Turn on the first switch and wait a few minutes, then turn it off and the second on. Go into the room. If the light is on, it's the second switch. If it's off, touch it. If it feels hot, it's the first switch; if it's cold, it's the third.

8. The night watchman was fired for sleeping on the job.

9. A coffin.