Ready Your Cerebrum! It’s Raining Riddles!

Solve these riddles — written by you fine readers, AND Wondercade's mysterious Puzzler!

Neil Patrick Harris is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Wondercade. In his spare time he also acts — fairly well, too, as his Tony and Emmy Awards can attest.

May 9, 2024 3:52 pm

Try your hand at these 20 riddles — some are user-submitted by you fine readers, while others were written up by Wondercade’s own mysterious Puzzler. Can you get them all?

(The answers to the reader riddles are in a cypher — not to stump or confuse, but simply to avoid being passively spoiled! To crack this particular code, simply replace each answer’s letter with the subsequent one in the alphabet: so “b” in the answer becomes “c,” “z” becomes “a,” and so forth.)

YOUR FELLOW WONDERCADE READERS’ RIDDLES

What gets bigger the more you take away from it? —Gretchen L.
Cypher: Z gnkd

What do homonymous authors ceremoniously practice? —Jim K.
Cypher: Sgd Vqhsd Qhfgs Qhsd

What are two things you can never eat for breakfast? —Norma M. and her grandson, Bo
Cypher: Ktmbg zmc chmmdq

Why did Coach go to the bank? —Tom S.
Cypher: Sn fds ghr ptzqsdqazbj

There’s a man in jail and on visitors’ day someone visited him. When the visitor left the guard asked, “Who visited you?” The prisoner said, “‘Brothers and sisters, I have none, but this man’s father is my father’s son.’ Who visited me?” —Violet
Cypher: Ghr rnm uhrhsdc ghl

When is a door not a door? —Mykolas
Cypher: Vgdm hs’r zizq

I run but don’t walk, have a mouth but don’t talk, and a bed but don’t sleep. What am I? —Ed C.
Cypher: Z qhudq

Why did the man name his two dogs Rolex and Timex? —Harry K.
Cypher: Sgdx vdqd vzsbg cnfr

Rachel goes to the supermarket and buys 10 tomatoes. Unfortunately, on the way back home, all but 9 get ruined. How many tomatoes are left in a good condition? —Nika S.
Cypher: Mhmd

If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring? —Jonathan F.
Cypher: Ohkfqhlr

NOW, OUR PROFESSIONAL PUZZLER’S BRAINTEASERS

REMINDER: THEY START SIMPLE AND GET HARDER. KINDA LIKE ME.

All right, now onto the next batch of riddles, courtesy of The Puzzler themself…

Narrator Note: This riddle below, says The Puzzler, dates back to ancient Mesopotamia, circa 2000 B.C.E…and is considered the first riddle ever. Which may explain why it’s sorta easy.

Narrator Note: Another history lesson for ya, kid…The Puzzler says this one below comes from a famous text from the Middle Ages called the Exeter Book: a tome of Old English poetry which was bequeathed by Leofric, the Bishop of Exeter, to the local monastery in 1072. Here’s one of the earliest known riddles in English…

Narrator Note: Another from the Exeter Book, below. Y’know, for being a pious text, some of these Old English riddles are…pretty dirty?! Maybe my mind’s in the gutter, kid…

Narrator Note: Significantly fewer stiff things in holes this time!

Narrator Note: Another historical one; one that’s apparently quite famous…though there’s debate as to which St. Ives in England it’s talking about, which is perhaps a meta riddle…