Everything on the site

Robert Greene’s rules for getting ahead, tried out on your missus and your mates.

https://www.leew.blog/48-laws-of-power

Stop passing the blame and start owning your sh*t.

https://www.leew.blog/accountability

Most of us think we’re good listeners. We’re sh*t at it, and the person opposite can tell.

https://www.leew.blog/active-listening

Here’s 7 relationship requirements far more important than Love.

https://www.leew.blog/all-you-need-is-love

Stop assuming she knows how you feel. Say it, early, or spend months in the fog.

https://www.leew.blog/ambiguity

How to get over someone fast. Take that pain, and do something good with it.

https://www.leew.blog/asap-breakup-guide

I’m sorry for all the sh*t we’ve done to you..

https://www.leew.blog/apoloogy

It’s attractive as f*ck, and it’s a lot more than speaking your mind.

https://www.leew.blog/assertiveness

Pretending to be someone you’re not is exhausting, and everyone can tell anyway.

https://www.leew.blog/authenticity

Failed my driving test twice. A year later I was driving without a second thought. Here’s what happened in between.

https://www.leew.blog/automaticity

Set them or get walked over. Nobody else is going to draw the line for you.

https://www.leew.blog/boundaries

Seven ways to breathe on purpose, and the one I use before every take-off.

https://www.leew.blog/breathwork

Understanding what someone feels is the easy bit. Feeling it with them is where the real connections are.

https://www.leew.blog/empathy

Want to enjoy life more? Stop expecting sh*t and go with what’s in front of you.

https://www.leew.blog/expectations

Cool the room, run a hot bath, and stop drinking coffee at half three. That’s most of it.

https://www.leew.blog/how-to-fall-asleep-faster

Don’t forgive and forget. Forgive, then either fix it or f*ck it off.

https://www.leew.blog/forgiveness

Stop moaning about what you don’t have. You’re sat on top of plenty.

https://www.leew.blog/gratitude

Half the time your head isn’t where your body is. Here’s how to bring it back.

https://www.leew.blog/how-to-be-mindful

I couldn’t look people in the eye, let alone touch them. Then I started hugging, and the twenty-second rule turned out to be wrong.

https://www.leew.blog/hugging

The study, sleep, study sandwich, the pen beats the laptop, and what Modafinil actually did to me.

https://www.leew.blog/learn-faster

It’s not love and it’s not a cute crush. It’s limerence, and it ate a month of my life.

https://www.leew.blog/limerence

What the f*ck does “listen to your body” actually mean, and how do you do it?

https://www.leew.blog/listen-to-your-body

Want to stay single forever? Easy. Be needy.

https://www.leew.blog/neediness

Find a reason for somebody to pay you for doing the things you love and are good at.

https://www.leew.blog/perfect-job

The quickest way to lose a girl you really like is to try and keep her.

https://www.leew.blog/possessiveness

Feeling empty after the last episode? You’re not mad. Here’s what happened, and what to do about it.

https://www.leew.blog/post-series-depression

Should your missus be allowed to go through your phone?

https://www.leew.blog/privacy-paradox

Sit alone with your thoughts for fifteen minutes. Most men would rather take an electric shock.

https://www.leew.blog/self-reflection

Younger looking skin without botox: three steps in the morning, three at night, and the pills I actually rate.

https://www.leew.blog/skin-protocol

There’s a time and a place to dig your heels in. Most of us get it the wrong way round.

https://www.leew.blog/stubbornness

Is fantasising about another woman a betrayal, or just human nature?

https://www.leew.blog/temptation

You’re not stuck in the friendzone. You keep walking back in.

https://www.leew.blog/friendzone

Why the woman who gives you everything can never be enough.

https://www.leew.blog/perfect-partner-paradox

It’s surprising how fast you can fall for a girl once she’s touched you. Here’s why, and how to use it yourself.

https://www.leew.blog/touch

Does opening up make you a stronger man, or a turtle without a shell?

https://www.leew.blog/vulnerability

Its bottom is at the top, and it isn’t upside down.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-bottom-at-the-top

A brick, half a brick, and a sum that’s easier than it sounds.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-brick-and-a-half

The most famous palindrome in English, told the way the Victorians told it.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/adams-first-words

Add to it and it shrinks.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/add-two-letters

Henry Dudeney haggles over small apples in old money and gets a penny a dozen off.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-deal-in-apples

A mug of coffee, a microwave and a woman who knows exactly what she’s doing.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-few-more-seconds

A flash, a crowd and a man who didn’t see the end of the show.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-flash-of-light

He pays the bill, and the meal still costs him nothing.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-free-dinner

A head, a tail and nothing in between.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-head-and-a-tail

One line, and a fair few right answers.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-head-but-no-thoughts

A riddle in verse from Christina Rossetti’s book of nursery rhymes.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-head-without-an-eye

Henry Dudeney called it an old friend in 1926. It was in print by 1888.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-hen-and-a-half

It has a horn and it will never once beep at you.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-horn-that-doesnt-honk

A nursery riddle from 1849 that fills a house and a yard.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-house-full

An old folk riddle about a thing with a hundred eyes and no nose.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-hundred-eyes

A medieval shopping puzzle with exactly one right answer.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-hundred-pigs-for-a-hundred-pence

A father kisses his daughter and wishes straight away he hadn’t.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-kiss-he-regrets

One islander, one sentence, and it tells you exactly what the other one is.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/alice-and-bob

Plenty of bark, and it has never bitten anyone.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/all-bark-no-bite

It’s covered in eyes and can’t see a thing.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/all-eyes-no-sight

No food, no water, nobody else, and he isn’t worried in the slightest.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/alone-on-an-island

A Victorian conundrum that works just as well with a modern answer.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/always-answered

It’s always on its way and it never gets here.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/always-coming

A quarter of a mile due west, no turns, and she ends up facing east.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/amy-drives-west

It has a neck and no head, and nobody finds that strange.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-neck-but-no-head

A body in the Arctic, and a pack on his back.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-pack-on-his-back

A Victorian conundrum, one letter long.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-question-in-one-letter

It has a ring, and it has never been near a finger.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-ring-but-no-finger

No walls, no doors, no windows, and you can still call it a room.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-room-with-no-walls

A man meets a crowd in the street and counts them by wishing there were more.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/as-many-again

It has a spine and not a bone in its body.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-spine-but-no-bones

A thousand needles and not a stitch to show for it.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-thousand-needles

It has a tongue, and it has never said a word.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-tongue-that-cant-talk

A one-line riddle from the school playground.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/a-tree-in-your-hand

A spacecraft worth a fortune, sat at the bottom of a sea for decades, and nobody is trying to bring it back.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/at-the-bottom-of-a-sea

The American version is set at a baseball game, and this one is set at the cricket.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/at-the-cricket

Three letters, and it reads the same both ways round.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/backwards-and-forwards

He pushes his car up to a hotel and knows on the spot that he’s broke.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/bankrupt-at-the-hotel

A riddle that plays with one letter.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/begins-and-ends-with-t

A parlour riddle from 1914 that still does the rounds.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/belongs-to-you

Take some away and it grows. Take more and it grows again.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/bigger-the-more-you-take

Probably the most collected folk riddle in twentieth-century America.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/black-and-white-and-red-all-over

A Victorian conundrum with a pun hiding in its last few words.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/black-itself

It changes colour three times between the shop and the bin.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/black-red-and-grey

Most things look better clean. This one goes dark.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/black-when-clean

A nursery riddle from 1849, short enough to say in one breath.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/black-within-red-without

A man wakes up to blood on his bedroom ceiling and has to work out how it got there.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/blood-on-the-ceiling

Born in 1972, died in 1952, and he lived to 25.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/born-after-he-died

Three letters and no ceremony. The Victorians had this one first.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/boy-into-man

A playground trick that still catches out grown-ups who answer too fast.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/bricks-or-feathers

So delicate that saying what it is wrecks it.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/broken-by-its-own-name

You can break it with your hands in your pockets.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/broken-without-a-touch

Bruce wins by a mile and goes home with no trophy and no prize money.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/bruce-wins-the-race

A parlour riddle from the 1700s that is very pleased with itself.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/captain-of-a-party-small

You can catch it, but good luck throwing it.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/catch-but-never-throw

The puzzle set for schoolchildren in Singapore that stumped half the internet in 2015.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/cheryls-birthday

A body on the living room floor on Christmas morning, and no sign of a break-in.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/christmas-morning

Cities, forests and water, and not a house, a tree or a fish among them.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/cities-but-no-houses

Five lumps of coal, a carrot and a scarf, lying in the middle of a lawn, and nobody threw them away.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/coal-a-carrot-and-a-scarf

Four verbs, and one thing that takes all of them.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/cracked-made-told-and-played

A man in the desert, a rock beside him, and not a mark or a footprint anywhere.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/dead-beside-a-rock

A man on a park bench reads about a drowning and knows it was murder before he gets to the end.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/death-at-sea

The Devil asks a girl this in a ballad from about 1450, and she has to get it right or he takes her.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/deeper-than-the-sea

She shoots him, holds him under water and hangs him, and then they go out for dinner.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/dinner-with-her-husband

A Chinese folk riddle where the washing is the problem.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/dirtier-with-washing

Two deaths, and nobody minding one of them at all.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/doreen-and-clive

A man dies of thirst without ever leaving home.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/dying-of-thirst-at-home

It has ears and hears nothing at all.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/ears-that-cant-hear

Getting in takes no effort at all. Getting out is another matter.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/easy-in-hard-out

A parlour joke that has been in print since at least 1900.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/enemy-in-three-letters

A parlour riddle in verse that claims to be older than Adam.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/ere-adam-was

A face, two hands and not a limb to its name.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/face-and-hands

It falls somewhere every day and never once needs a plaster.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/falls-without-getting-hurt

It thrives on food, and a drink finishes it off.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/feed-it

One of the strangest crime scenes in the lateral thinking canon.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/fifty-three-bicycles

It fills a room to the corners and takes up no room at all.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/fills-a-room

A Victorian riddle for children, in print since at least 1903.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/four-fingers-and-a-thumb

Odin in disguise put this one to a king, and the king got it.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/four-hang-four-walk

Four letters, one burglar and a Victorian sense of humour.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/four-letters-for-a-thief

Five letters, take four away, and it still sounds the same.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/four-letters-gone

It has four wheels and flies, and it has never left the ground.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/four-wheels-and-flies

A sum you can do in your head, and most heads get it wrong.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/freds-potatoes

Dug out of the ground and locked in a wooden case for good.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/from-the-mine

Riddled with holes, and it still holds water.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/full-of-holes

A man finishes getting dressed, lies down on his bed and never gets up.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/getting-dressed

Hand it over and you’ve still got it, a Victorian riddle.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/give-it-and-keep-it

Seven wives, seven sacks, seven cats, seven kits, and a lot of people reaching for a calculator.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/going-to-st-ives

The inventor of chess asks for his reward in wheat, and the king thinks he’s getting off lightly.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/grains-on-a-chessboard

It went round by email with the claim that only children can solve it, though a version was in print in 1914.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/greater-than-god

Ten people at a party, and a lot of handshaking.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/handshakes-at-a-party

Over a thousand years old, kept in a cathedral library, and written to make you blush.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/hanging-by-his-thigh

Short, and harder to pin down than it looks.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/heard-never-seen

Four brothers are already dead, and the fifth has to answer a spirit’s questions or join them.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/heavier-than-the-earth

A kids’ riddle that is cleverer than it looks.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/heavy-forwards

A man says hello to a friend at the airport and gets arrested for it.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/hello-at-the-airport

No pole vault, no trampoline and no superhero required.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/higher-than-a-building

A nursery riddle from a 17th-century manuscript, about something that bites if you touch it.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/hitty-pitty

The riddle that, so the old story goes, was the death of Homer.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/homers-riddle

In 1903 this ran in a New York paper and became a national craze.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/how-old-is-ann

Everyone knows the rhyme, and hardly anyone notices it never says what he is.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/humpty-dumpty

Seven letters on the outside and hundreds on the inside.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/hundreds-of-letters

A folk song that asks a riddle in its first verse and answers it in the second.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/i-gave-my-love-a-cherry

A riddle for kids that gets deeper the longer you look at it.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/in-front-of-you

He rides in on Friday, stays three nights and leaves on Friday.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/in-on-friday-out-on-friday

A Victorian word puzzle, fixed slightly here because the original cheated.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/its-own-opposite

A mask, an empty sack, a full sack, and nobody calls the police.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/joe-and-the-empty-sack

It has dozens of keys and has never opened a single door.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/keys-but-no-locks

Not poisoned, not choked, and still killed by what he ate first thing.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/killed-by-breakfast

It has legs and has never taken a step.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/legs-that-cant-walk

You learnt this one at school, and that’s the problem.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/letters-in-the-alphabet

It weighs nothing, and even the strongest person can’t hang on to it for long.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/light-as-a-feather

A man turns the light off before bed, and in the morning he can’t live with it.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/lights-out

A white petticoat, a red nose and a girl who gets shorter the longer she stands.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/little-nancy-etticoat

Eleven words of Victorian nonsense that make perfect sense once you see it.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/lose-an-eye

A children’s riddle, and a fair one.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/losing-its-head

One of the riddles a fiend puts to a young woman in an English ballad from the 1400s.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/louder-than-a-horn

A parlour riddle in four rhyming lines, about something nobody wants to keep or give away.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/made-today

A magic trick you can do with a pencil.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/make-one-disappear

It got famous as a Microsoft interview question, and there is a proper answer.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/manhole-covers

A Henry Dudeney puzzle from 1917 about a girl, her mum and a bicycle.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/mother-and-daughter

From a Victorian book of riddles, and it’s still true.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/never-again

There’s one question nobody can ever honestly answer yes to.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/never-a-yes

Eight words from a Victorian puzzle book, still doing the rounds.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/never-borrowed

Two things that will never, ever be your breakfast.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/never-for-breakfast

A writer with millions of readers, one interruption and no second chance.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/never-interrupted

Nine coins, one of them heavy, and a balance that can only compare.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/nine-coins

A Victorian riddle where the maths works, just not the way you think.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/nine-into-six

A train pulls in, the platform is full, and not a single person moves.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/nobody-gets-on

It was never alive, and it still dies on you at the worst moment.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/no-life-but-it-can-die

No hat, no hood, no umbrella, heavy rain, and not one hair on his head gets wet.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/not-a-hair-wet

Two brothers, born in the same hour of the same day of the same year, and they aren’t twins.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/not-twins

The maker doesn’t need it, the buyer doesn’t use it, and the user never knows it’s there.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/no-use-to-the-buyer

One eye, a long tail and a habit of leaving bits of it behind.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/old-mother-twitchett

It turns up in a minute and in a moment, but you could wait a thousand years.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/once-in-a-minute

It has an eye and it has never seen a thing.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/one-eye-no-sight

A riddle from one of the Seven Sages of ancient Greece, about a very big family.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/one-father-twelve-children

A Victorian word puzzle that seems to break the rules of counting.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/one-syllable-into-two

She throws something out of the window, and it kills her.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/out-of-the-window

Something cracks under London Bridge, and no man in England can mend it.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/over-london-bridge

A sum from a Latin puzzle book written around the year 800.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/pigeons-on-a-ladder

Lots of steps, no legs.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/plenty-of-steps

A thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon riddle that reads like a crime scene.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/robbed-of-life

Romeo and Juliet dead on the floor again, and this time there’s no poison.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/romeo-and-juliet

A Victorian riddle about something that grows the wrong way up.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/roots-upward

It goes all the way round and never takes a step.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/round-the-garden

An old nursery riddle with a mouth, a head and a bed.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/runs-but-never-walks

A wedding feast, a bet of thirty shirts and the oldest rigged riddle in the book.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/samsons-riddle

An easy one from a puzzle book about 1,200 years old.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/seven-carpenters

Another of the Devil’s questions, from a ballad first written down around 1450.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/sharper-than-a-thorn

Most things go blunt the more you use them. Not this.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/sharper-with-use

Locked doors, closed windows, no bullet holes, and a dead man at the wheel.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/shot-in-the-drivers-seat

Six faces, no make-up, and twenty-one eyes that can’t see a thing.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/six-faces

Getting dressed in the dark, with a drawer full of two colours.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/socks-in-the-dark

Another one from the Exeter Book. A thousand years on, it still makes people go red.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/something-in-the-corner

Keys but no locks, space but no room, and a way in that doesn’t let you in.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/space-but-no-room

A playground trick, and it works every single time.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/spelling-mississippi

Thousands of naked strangers, and he picks out two of them straight away.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/spotted-in-heaven

It sees the world without ever leaving its corner.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/stuck-in-a-corner

A lorry jammed under a bridge by an inch, and the driver gets it out in a minute without unloading a thing.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/stuck-under-the-bridge

Two shop assistants race each other, in a puzzle by the great English puzzle-maker Henry Dudeney.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/sugar-against-cloth

A question from a contest where losing meant death, and the prince got every one right.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/swifter-than-the-wind

A Victorian conundrum that works like a magic trick.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/take-away-the-whole

Plenty of food smells better than it tastes. This goes the other way.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/tastes-better-than-it-smells

A full set of teeth, and it has never bitten anyone.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/teeth-that-cant-bite

A riddle from an Icelandic saga, asked by a stranger with a secret.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/ten-feet-and-one-tail

Ten prisoners, ten hats and one chance each to name the colour on their own head.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/ten-hats-in-a-line

The best-known lateral thinking puzzle there is, and one of the darkest.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-albatross-soup

A parcel, a human arm and two men who know exactly what it means.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-arm-in-the-post

A baby falls out of a window of a twenty-storey building and doesn’t get a scratch.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-baby-and-the-window

Of all the cheeses in the shop, one is made backwards.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-backwards-cheese

Lewis Carroll thought this up lying awake at night, and he knew exactly which wrong answer you’d give.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-bag-of-counters

Three boys, 770 nuts and two clues about who grabs how many.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-bag-of-nuts

The sort of joke that falls out of a cracker with a paper hat.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-ball-that-wont-bounce

Three lines of maths that most people get wrong in under a second.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-bat-and-the-ball

A parlour riddle that sounds far deeper than it is.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-beginning-of-eternity

Four girls, five eggs, they all take one and there are still four left.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-birds-nest

He finally sees a bird he never expected, and seconds later he’s dead.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-birdwatcher

A blind beggar, a brother who died, and a relationship that isn’t the obvious one.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-blind-beggar

A visitor tells an island something everyone there already knows, and it changes everything.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-blue-eyed-islanders

A bowling ball, a trip to hospital and nothing to do with bowling.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-bowling-ball

Four people, one torch and a rickety bridge that only takes two at a time.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-bridge-at-night

A dead man, a broken match and not a footprint for miles.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-broken-match

Plenty of food, plenty of water, the door locked from the inside, and nobody alive.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-cabin-on-the-mountain

A late game of cards, and halfway through, one player works out he’s about to die.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-card-game

A man, a car radio and a few seconds that tell him everything.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-car-radio

Sam Loyd’s bank puzzle from 1914, moved from dollars to pounds.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-cashiers-notes

A closed box, a man who can’t see, hear or smell what’s in it, and he knows anyway.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-cat-in-the-box

A doorstep conversation, three children and just enough information, if you know where to look.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-census-taker

Physics has one answer. The riddle has a much smaller one.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-centre-of-gravity

A cracker joke, so brace yourself for the groan.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-christmas-alphabet

Forty-one men, a deadly count and one safe place to stand.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-circle-of-forty-one

Wind is invisible, so this should be a short conversation.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-colour-of-the-wind

A lateral thinking puzzle where, for once, nobody dies.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-corner-on-the-commute

A man running with a piece of paper, and the lights flicker at exactly the wrong moment.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-corridor

An Anglo-Saxon riddle with one of the silliest answers ever written down.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-creature-with-twelve-hundred-heads

Two corners off a chessboard, thirty-one dominoes and a lot of wasted evenings.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-cut-chessboard

A man hanged in an empty barn, nothing to stand on, and a puddle underneath him.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-empty-barn

No pot of gold, no leprechaun. Something much more reliable.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-end-of-a-rainbow

A family of four, a boat that barely floats and a puzzle from around 800 AD.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-family-at-the-river

A French paper says a runner averaged nearly twenty thousand kilometres an hour, and it’s right.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-fastest-runner-in-france

A dead man and a feather, and nothing else to go on.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-feather

Told all over Europe for over a thousand years, about a bird with no feathers and a lord with no hands.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-featherless-bird

Five greedy pirates, a hundred gold coins and a vote that could end in a splash.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-five-pirates

He sends his coffee back over a fly, and one sip of the new cup tells him it isn’t new.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-fly-in-the-coffee

Three doors, one car, two goats and the puzzle that had nearly a thousand PhDs writing in to complain.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-game-show

Hours inside a huge metal tube, gripping her husband’s hand, and they walk out fine.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-giant-metal-tube

He asks for water, gets a gun pointed at him, and leaves saying thank you.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-glass-of-water

A horse jumps a tower, a man vanishes, and nobody calls the police.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-horse-and-the-tower

A chase from a puzzle book credited to Charlemagne’s schoolmaster.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-hound-and-the-hare

A Latin riddle written for the Roman midwinter festival, about sixteen hundred years ago.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-house-and-its-guest

One of the oldest riddles ever written down, from Sumerian clay tablets.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-house-you-enter-blind

A hundred prisoners, a hundred drawers and odds that look hopeless until they aren’t.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-hundred-drawers

A mile south, a mile east, a mile north, and a question about colour.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-hunters-walk

A Victorian pun that only works on paper.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-invisible-letter

A wife’s age, written backwards, is her husband’s. Dudeney gives you one more clue.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/their-ages

Three couples, one small boat and three husbands who trust nobody.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-jealous-husbands

A maths problem from the court of Charlemagne, about twelve hundred years old.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-kings-army

Three wise men, three hats and a very long silence.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-kings-wise-men

A man shakes a stone out of his shoe and walks away with a broken arm.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-lamppost

A Victorian bishop’s riddle with about twenty puns in it, every one a groan.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-large-box

A trick question set for schoolboys some twelve hundred years ago.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-last-furrow

One for trying out on yourself.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-left-hand

One of three questions in a famous test of whether you think before you answer.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-lily-pads

A dead man, a gate two hundred feet away and a short stick. That’s all you get.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-man-by-the-gate

A man in black on an unlit lane, a black car with no headlights, and nobody gets hurt.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-man-in-black

Joe wants to go home, and a man in a mask won’t let him.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-man-in-the-mask

He hates stairs, and most evenings he climbs three floors of them anyway.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-man-on-the-tenth-floor

A woman drops a stone in a few seconds, and she hasn’t been anywhere near a gym.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-miracle-diet

Three friends, a hotel room and a pound that seems to vanish into thin air.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-missing-pound

One word in English that nobody, not even the dictionary, ever spells right.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-misspelt-word

A man in a lift knows his wife has just died. Nobody told him.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-moment-he-knew

Take more of them and you leave more behind.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-more-you-take

Nothing else does quite what it is asked

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-most-obedient-things

Forget the Shard and forget Dubai.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-most-stories

A man leaning on his car horn in the middle of the night, and a good reason for it.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-motel-car-park

The shortest mystery you’ll read today, and every word of it counts.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-music-stopped

A birthday present, a trip out for food, and a man who never comes home.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-new-aftershave

A new pair of shoes in the morning and a body by the evening.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-new-shoes

A number riddle a maths teacher would hate.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-odd-number

A probability question from Martin Gardner, and the easier of a famous pair.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-older-child

Twins, two birthdays and the older one always celebrating last.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-older-twin

The kind of riddle your grandad would tell, and then explain.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-oldest-furniture

A dead man in the desert and a scrap of paper pinned to a cactus.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-paper-on-the-cactus

A perfect plan, a dark hallway and the worst possible timing.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-perfect-murder

A man jumps from a window, and one ring of a telephone makes him wish he hadn’t.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-phone-that-rang-too-late

A photo with a stranger who turns out to be her grandfather.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-photograph

A pigeon does some mental arithmetic, about twelve hundred years ago.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-pigeon-in-the-tree

A dead man and a little heap of sawdust in the corner. That’s the lot.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-pile-of-sawdust

Four planets have it and two don’t. You won’t need a telescope.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-planets

Everyone who drank the punch died, except the man who drank it first.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-poisoned-punch

A dead man in an alley, a red puddle and two little sticks.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-red-pool

A farmer, a small boat and three passengers who can’t be left alone together, set as a puzzle twelve hundred years ago.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-river-crossing

Gold, jewels, a chandelier and a dead man lying under it.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-room-full-of-gold

Three short sentences and a death. Nothing else to go on.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-rope-and-the-bell

Two dead men, a pile of broken planks and a rope. Work out what they were doing.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-rope-and-the-timber

Seventeen horses, three sons and a neighbour who rides home on the horse he lent.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-seventeen-horses

Your gut has an answer to this one. The maths has another.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-shared-birthday

A riddle from Dhu al-Rummah, one of the earliest Arabic poets known to have written them.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-shy-maiden

A playground riddle about a band nobody pays to see.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-silent-band

A hotel room, a phone call with nothing said, and then a good night’s sleep.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-silent-call

A thousand-year-old riddle from the Exeter Book, and one of its prettiest.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-singing-garments

A murder proved in court, and a judge who can do nothing about it.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-sister-in-court

Not a footbridge, not a toy bridge, something smaller still.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-smallest-bridge

From the days of smoking carriages, when sitting with the smokers saved a man’s life.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-smoking-carriage

Three feet up, two feet back, and a question that catches anyone who counts too quickly.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-snail-in-the-well

A swallow invites a snail to lunch. It’s a fair way, and the snail is a snail.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-snails-lunch

A one-line riddle from ninth-century Baghdad, by one of its great poets.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-snake-with-a-pearl-head

A man in a snorkel and mask, dead in a forest miles from any water.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-snorkeller-in-the-forest

The most famous riddle there is, and outside Thebes a wrong answer got you eaten.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-sphinx

A spider, a fly and a long thin room, in Henry Dudeney’s best-known puzzle.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-spider-and-the-fly

A riddle from al-Hariri of Basra, written nearly a thousand years ago.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-split-head

A stem, a foot, and nothing that grows or walks.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-stem-and-the-foot

A locked car, a dead wife and a stranger her husband has never seen before.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-stranger-in-the-car

Sugar goes into coffee and comes out whole a minute later.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-sugar-cube

A boy, a car crash and a surgeon who won’t operate. It’s been catching people out since the seventies.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-surgeon

An Anglo-Saxon riddle that gives its answer away in the first two words, and still works.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-thief-in-the-dark

Everyone agrees on this one, whatever they believe.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-thing-in-between

A father leaves thirty flasks of oil to three sons, and nobody is allowed to pour.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-thirty-flasks

A French mathematician’s trap from 1889, and most people still walk straight into it.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-three-boxes

A French mathematician’s toy from 1883, sold with a legend about the end of the world.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-three-discs

A kids’ riddle that only works out loud.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-three-letter-seed

Three switches, one bulb and a single trip into the room to work out which is which.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-three-switches

An age puzzle from Henry Dudeney, England’s great puzzle setter, in 1917.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-timpkins-wedding

A man’s suit rips at work, and minutes later he’s dead.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-torn-suit

A riddle the Prophet Muhammad put to his companions, written down in the hadith of Bukhari.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-tree-that-keeps-its-leaves

Twelve coins, one fake and a balance scale, in a puzzle that ate a lot of wartime afternoons.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-twelve-coins

Two brothers who never stop fighting, from the man who invented the maqama a thousand years ago.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-two-brothers

Lewis Carroll asks which clock you’d rather have, then uses your own answer against you.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-two-clocks

One door to freedom, one to death, one liar, one honest man and one question to ask.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-two-guards

Two men claim the throne, and the one who refuses the test wins it.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-two-heirs

An egg, two hourglasses and a nine-minute boil.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-two-hourglasses

Bruce Willis had to do this against the clock in Die Hard with a Vengeance. You’ve got all day.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-two-jugs

Two ropes that burn unevenly, one lighter and exactly 45 minutes to measure.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-two-ropes

Two spies with perfect papers try to get into America. Only one of them makes it past the desk.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-two-spies

Two trains, one fly and a sum that looks as if it never ends.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-two-trains-and-the-fly

A dead man in a field, a package beside him that nobody opened, and nothing else in the field.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-unopened-package

A coat you’ll never find in a wardrobe.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-wet-coat

One letter of the alphabet holds more water than all the rest.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-wettest-letter

A riddle jotted down in Verona around the year 800, in a language halfway between Latin and Italian.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-white-field

The second question on Shane Frederick’s three-question test, and the obvious answer is wrong.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-widget-factory

The best-known rude riddle in Old English, from a book that still sits in Exeter Cathedral.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-wondrous-creature

An empty yacht in the middle of the ocean, and bodies in the water all around it.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-yacht

A yellow hat, the Red Sea and a question that sounds harder than it is.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/the-yellow-hat

Thirteen hearts, and not a single other organ.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/thirteen-hearts

A three-letter animal, spelt with thirteen letters, and every one of them is right.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/thirteen-letters

A folk riddle collected in Tehran, about a crowd dressed in white and one dancer in red.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/thirty-two-in-white

Two letters given away, and thousands more to find.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/thousands-of-letters

A magic trick that looks easy until it’s your turn.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/three-cups

Name three days running, and you can’t use any of their names.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/three-days-in-a-row

One ordinary English word has three pairs of double letters, one after the other.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/three-double-letters

A farmer, three days and an order that sounds simple enough.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/three-hundred-pigs

Three big people, one small umbrella, and not a drop on any of them.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/three-under-one-umbrella

No X-ray, no camera, and it lets you see right through a wall.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/through-a-wall

It goes everywhere and never moves an inch.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/through-cities-and-towns

There’s one place where today always comes first.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/today-before-yesterday

From an American book of riddles printed in 1846, and it still works.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/tomorrow-and-yesterday

Two sets of tracks go in, one comes out, and the driver never left.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/tracks-in-the-snow

Answer wrong and Princess Turandot has your head.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/turandots-first-riddle

Twelve people take an egg each from a box of twelve, and there’s still one in the box.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/twelve-eggs-twelve-people

A Victorian riddle with a soft centre.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/twenty-five-letters

A Victorian brain-teaser that’s more literal than it sounds.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/twenty-six-letters

A man in a village marries twenty women and nobody calls the police.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/twenty-weddings

Two drivers dead in two cars without a scratch on them.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/two-dead-drivers

A fishing trip where the numbers don’t add up, until they do.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/two-fathers-and-two-sons

Two keys, and not a lock in the world they’ll open.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/two-keys

One for the classroom, one for the cupboard

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/two-kinds-of-shine

An old English nursery riddle that is mostly legs.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/two-legs-sat-upon-three-legs

A Victorian word puzzle that’s over in five letters.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/two-letters-away

A wordplay riddle about a ship the navy has never heard of.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/two-mates-no-captain

One says the sum is right, the other says it’s wrong, and neither of them is lying.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/two-mathematicians

A riddle put to the hero Zal in the Shahnameh, Persia’s book of kings, a thousand years ago.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/two-swift-horses

Every other Friday she writes the same two words, sixty times over, and nothing else.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/two-words-sixty-times

It only ever goes one way.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/up-but-never-down

Four letters that refuse to change, whichever way you turn them.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/upside-down-and-backwards

A nursery conundrum that sounds like a tongue-twister and isn’t one.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/up-the-chimney

A perfectly ordinary woman walks across a lake and doesn’t sink.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/walking-on-water

A riddle from the Logba people of Ghana, who borrowed it from their Ewe neighbours.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/water-in-her-tank

Seven words and a contradiction that turns out not to be one.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/wetter-the-more-it-dries

One of the first Native American riddles ever written down, from around 1639.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/what-i-desire

A parlour riddle from 1914 in a dozen words.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/wipe-my-face

Four short lines, and no mouth, ears or body anywhere.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/without-a-mouth

A police officer watches a lorry driver go the wrong way down a one-way street and lets him.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/wrong-way-down-a-one-way-street

The alphabet runs one way, and this runs the other.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles/z-to-a

Not a leak. A proper press conference. And a confession.

https://www.leew.blog/predictions#aliens-confirmed

I reckon AI will be used to create a virus that wipes out most of humanity..

https://www.leew.blog/predictions#ai-virus

Med-tech will make most major diseases curable. But the same tech will be used to release something deadlier, making Covid look like a runny nose.

https://www.leew.blog/predictions#bioterrorism

AI companions will be better in every way. Real human connection becomes a choice, not a need. Connection Retreats will be the new AA meetings. Some will find it hard to live in a world without real love. Most won’t give a sh*t.

https://www.leew.blog/predictions#dating-dies

AI generates your films and shows, and the cast is you and your mates. Got a question mid-watch? Ask it and it’ll answer you directly. Netflix recommends something. You’re the lead character.

https://www.leew.blog/predictions#me-tv

Drug stacks that burn fat and build muscle go mainstream. Peptides will become one of the fastest growing supplements in history. People will be ripped without ever needing a gym membership.

https://www.leew.blog/predictions#muscle-madness

Not a diet or discipline problem. When myostatin blockers (apitegromab, bimagrumab, trevogrumab) go mainstream, stacked with GLP-1s (retatrutide, tirzepatide, orforglipron), there’s almost no reason for anyone to be fat. Honestly.

https://www.leew.blog/predictions#obesity-optional

And integrated with religion. Not to question belief, but to deepen it.

https://www.leew.blog/predictions#psychedelics

AI pleasure, VR, AR, haptics and new drugs will simply feel better than the real thing. So why bother?

https://www.leew.blog/predictions#sexlessness

Your toilet knows more about your health than your doctor. It reads your data every time you have a poo and lets you know if something’s off.

https://www.leew.blog/predictions#talking-toilets

Replaced by something digital, easier to track, easier to control. Sold as progress. Works like a leash.

https://www.leew.blog/predictions#dollar-falls

Every surface in your home becomes interactive.

https://www.leew.blog/predictions#talking-to-walls

The decisions, habits and mistakes that made me, and what they cost.

https://www.leew.blog/life

Getting close, staying close, and all the ways I’ve managed to make both harder.

https://www.leew.blog/love

Things I do to look and feel better, with varying degrees of success.

https://www.leew.blog/vanity

Strange on purpose: the odd things I can’t unsee, written up anyway.

https://www.leew.blog/weird

The palette, type, shapes, diagram recipe and imagery rules: the north star for anything drawn or written for the site.

https://www.leew.blog/about/brand

Contact — edit this page in the admin.

https://www.leew.blog/contact

Cookies — edit this page in the admin.

https://www.leew.blog/legals/cookies

Lee Walpole, Nothing and everything. 20+ years writing copy, building websites and getting small businesses found.

https://www.leew.blog/about/cv

Notes on love, life, vanity, money and code.

https://www.leew.blog/

What I reckon happens next, and the day I said it. The wrong ones stay on the board.

https://www.leew.blog/predictions

Privacy — edit this page in the admin.

https://www.leew.blog/legals/privacy

Old riddles and brain teasers. The answer stays hidden until you ask for it.

https://www.leew.blog/riddles

Terms — edit this page in the admin.

https://www.leew.blog/legals/terms