Long Riddles

Long riddles with answers test your problem solving skills. These lengthy puzzles test your ability to piece together information and find the answer.

The Monk Travel

At precisely 7:00 a.m., a monk sets out to climb a tall mountain, so that he might visit a temple at its peak. The trail he walks is narrow and winding, but it is the only way to reach the summit. As he ascends the mountain, the monk walks the path at varying speeds. Though he stops occasionally to rest and eat, he never strays from the path, and he never walks backwards. At exactly 7:00 p.m., the monk reaches the temple at the summit, where he stays the night.

The following morning at 7:00 a.m. sharp, the monk departs the temple and begins his journey back to the bottom of the mountain. He descends by way of the same path, again walking slowly at times and quickly at others, stopping here and there to eat and drink and rest, but never deviating from the path and never going backwards. Twelve hours later, at 7:00 p.m. on the nose, the monk arrives back at the foot of the mountain.

Is there any point along the path that the monk occupied at precisely the same time on both days? How do you know?

Riddle Answer

Six Grave Plot

While ambling about your local cemetery, you stumble upon a grave marker situated before a six-grave plot. Glancing down, you notice an inscription upon the family stone. It reads:

Here lie…
2 Grandmothers with their 2 Granddaughters
2 Husbands with their 2 Wives
2 Fathers with their 2 Daughters
2 Mothers with their 2 Sons
2 Maidens with their 2 Mothers
2 Sisters with their 2 Brothers

Yet but 6 corpses all lie buried here. All born legitimate, from incest clear. How is this possible?

Riddle Answer

Pot of Beans

A pot contains 75 white beans and 150 black ones. Next to the pot is a large pile of black beans.

A somewhat demented cook removes the beans from the pot, one at a time, according to the following strange rule: He removes two beans from the pot at random. If at least one of the beans is black, he places it on the bean-pile and drops the other bean, no matter what color, back in the pot. If both beans are white, on the other hand, he discards both of them and removes one black bean from the pile and drops it in the pot.

At each turn of this procedure, the pot has one less bean in it. Eventually, just one bean is left in the pot. What color is it?

Riddle Answer

Oracle at Temple

A man went to a temple to find an Oracle. When he arrived, he saw that there were two identical people standing in the temple, both wearing the exact same thing.

The two men told the man that if he wanted his future read, he would have to do something first. They told him that only one of them was the real Oracle and that he had to figure out which is which. They also added that one of them only tells lies while the other only tells the truth and the man could only ask them one question.

What question does the man ask?

Riddle Answer

9 Cocktails

You and your 4 best friends have just graduated from university and celebrate by going out for drinks. You head to the local cocktail bar, famous for the following 9 cocktails: Aviation, Bronx, Caipirinha, Grasshopper, Hurricane, Kamikaze, Manhattan, Negroni, and Vesper.

In the spirit of your celebration, the bartender tells you that if you can identify all 9 cocktails after the third round of drinks (one drink each per round), he won’t charge you for the cocktails. The group then proceeds to order 5 drinks per round for 3 rounds. Although none of you know anything about cocktails, with clever ordering and deductive reasoning you find a way to do it. How?

This is not a trick question. The bartender doesn’t tell you which drink is which when he brings them and there are no pictures of the drinks, etc.

Riddle Answer