A set built around assumptions and double meanings, including one riddle that stops being difficult the moment you notice what you have taken for granted. One easy, two medium, three hard.
#1easyUnsolved What has a spine but no bones?
Hint: It sits on a shelf with a lot of others.Answer: a bookThe spine of a book is the bound edge that holds the pages together.
#2mediumUnsolved What comes once in a year, twice in a week, but never in a day?
Hint: Count carefully, letter by letter.Answer: eThere is one E in 'year', two in 'week', and none at all in 'day'.
#3mediumUnsolved What can you give away and still keep for yourself?
Hint: You give it whenever you make a promise.Answer: your wordYou give someone your word, and yet you keep it at the same time.
#4hardUnsolved What has one head, one foot and four legs?
Hint: You spend about a third of your life on it.Answer: a bedA bed has a headboard at one end, a foot at the other, and four legs underneath.
#5hardUnsolved A father and his son are in a serious crash. The father dies at the scene. The boy is rushed to hospital, where the surgeon looks at him and says: I cannot operate on this boy, he is my son. How?
Hint: Check the assumption you just made about the surgeon.Answer: his motherThe surgeon is the boy's mother. The puzzle only works if you assumed a surgeon must be a man.
#6hardUnsolved What is the one thing that gets sharper the more you use it?
Hint: You are exercising it right now.Answer: your brainA blade dulls with use, but the brain does the opposite and sharpens.