100 Challenging Detective Riddles [Free Riddle Cards]

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Ready for the best mind challenge? Look no further than these detective riddles. These will test your problem-solving skills as you try to unravel the truth. These detective riddles are sure to entertain and engage. So put your thinking cap on and try and crack the case.

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Riddles are the perfect way to bond with your friends and family. They not only are fun but they boost their brain power, improve langauge skills, enhance creativity, provides hours of entertainment, builds confidence and more. These detective riddles will have you stumped as you try and solve them.

For even more riddle fun, try our emoji riddles, our birthday riddles, and our love riddles.

Best Detective Riddles

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A detective was locked in a room that had a dirt floor, with a shovel and an open window too high for him to climb out of. How did he escape? He climbed on top of a dirt mound he made and escaped.
Two girls ate dinner together. They both ordered iced tea. One girl drank them very fast and had finished five in the time it took the other to drink just one. The girl who drank one died while the other survived. However, all of the drinks that were served turned out to contain poison. How did the girl who drank the most survive? The poison was in the ice. When the girl drank the iced tea, the ice was still fully frozen. Gradually, as the ice cubes melted the poison was released into the drink.
A king with no queen, sons, or daughters decides to work out a way of choosing his next in line. He gives all the children in the kingdom a single seed and says that whoever has the largest, most beautiful plant will inherit his throne. When the day comes, all the children present gargantuan plants, but he decides to choose a little girl with an empty plant pot as his successor. Why? He gave all the children fake seeds which wouldn’t grow – this little girl was the only one who didn’t pretend the seed grew.
A man told a story about how he was awarded a medal for ‘Bravery during World War 1’. Why is this a lie? They didn’t know there was going to be a World War 2 at the time, so they wouldn’t have said World War 1.
Three spies, suspected as double agents, speak as follows when questioned: Albert: “Bertie is a mole.” Bertie: “Cedric is a mole.” Cedric: “Bertie is lying.” Assuming that moles lie, other agents tell the truth, and there is just one mole among the three, who is the mole? A Bertie is the mole. Both Albert and Cedric are telling the truth. When Albert said, “Bertie is a mole,” he was telling the truth, and giving the correct answer. When Bertie said, “Cedric is a mole,” he was lying, as he himself is a lying mole. When Cedric responded, “Bertie is lying,” he was telling the truth, and also affirming that Bertie was lying.
After Andrew had been sick for a week, he asked his best friend Jesse to get his books out of his locker. Instead of telling Jesse the three-number combination, Andrew said he kept a small piece of paper with the combination under his locker door. After school, Jesse went to Andrew’s locker and pulled out the paper. On the paper was written: 24 24 22 9 9 9 9 22 24 22 9 9. Thinking this would be easy but a little tedious, Jesse entered every arrangement of 24, 22, and 9 there was without the lock opening. Realizing there was something behind these numbers that he wasn’t noticing, Jesse sat down for a few minutes to think it out. After ten minutes of intense thinking, Jesse went to the locker, entered the combination into the lock and it opened. What was the combination? 28, 4, 17. Writing the 24th letter of the alphabet for each 24, the 22nd letter of the alphabet for each 22, and the 9th letter of the alphabet for each 9 reveals XXVIII IV XVII. It is now clear that the combination is written in Roman Numerals. The only set of 3 Roman Numerals that fits this arrangement is XXVIII IV XVII or 28, 4, 17.
A man entered his house and was about to hang up his coat when he heard his wife shout; “No John! Don’t do it!” There was a shot and he could hear his wife fall down. When he entered the kitchen he saw his wife and the gun lying on the floor. There was a police officer, a doctor, and a lawyer standing next to her. Peter immediately knew that the police officer had shot her. But how did he come to know? The police officer has a name on his badge.
A man is in court for killing his wife. In the closing statements, the man’s lawyer surprises everyone when he announces “His wife was just missing. Everyone looks at those doors. His wife is going to walk in those doors in about 30 seconds.” The entire court is silent and the jury stares at the door as the lawyer and the defendant staring at them. After a couple of minutes, the lawyer says “See! If you were so sure he killed his wife, you wouldn’t be watching that door!” The jury goes into deliberation and comes back almost immediately with a guilty verdict. Why did the jury convict him? The defendant (man charged for killing his wife) wasn’t looking at the door. He knew his wife wasn’t coming.
It was a man’s birthday. He lay dead in the lounge room of his house. Next to his body was a note, written in pencil. The note read ‘Happy Birthday, Friend’. The victim had a girlfriend and the police suspected her ex-boyfriend. They could find no obvious evidence. While searching the ex-boyfriend’s car, the police saw an envelope with the girlfriend’s address written on it. They thought they would get the handwriting checked against the note. The scientist in charge came in early to work the next day; it was 7 am. He looked out his window which faced east and stared at the rising sun and it was then that he realised how to prove the ex-boyfriend killed the man, even though the girlfriend’s address was not written in the same handwriting. How did he do it? The scientist’s office faced east, and the sun was coming in through the window at a very low angle. He saw some very faint shadows on the surface of the envelope. He looked closer. There were the words embossed on the paper. They read “Happy Birthday, Friend”. The ex-boyfriend had forgotten that a pencil leaves an impression on the paper beneath the page written.
A man was found dead with a cassette recorder in one hand and a gun in his other hand. When the police came in, they immediately pressed the play button on the cassette. They heard the man say, “I have nothing else to live for. I can’t go on.” Then there was the sound of a gunshot. After listening to the cassette tape, the police knew that it was not a suicide, but a homicide. How did they know? If the man shot himself while he was recording, how did he rewind the cassette tape so that the play button worked immediately?
A lawyer argued for $1,000,000 in damages based on the following claim: His client went to an art museum, where he saw a painting of Marie Antoinette on a guillotine. He fell asleep and dreamed of the painting. At the museum’s closing time, a guard tapped him on the neck just as he dreamed of the guillotine beheading Marie Antoinette. The tap provoked immediate cardiac arrest and a fatal heart attack immediately following because he associated the tap with the guillotine blade. The judge dismissed the case. Why? If the client died in his sleep, there would be no way of knowing what he was dreaming.
A man was shot in the heart. Nobody tries to save him and it doesn’t kill him. What happened? The man was dead before getting shot in the heart.
A dead body is found at the bottom of a multistory building. Seeing the position of the body, it is evident that the person jumped from one of the floors, committing suicide. A homicide detective is called to look after the case. He goes to the first floor and walks into the room facing the direction in which the body was found. He opens the window in that direction and flips a coin towards the floor. Then he goes to the second floor and repeats the process. He keeps on doing this until he reaches the last floor. Then, when he climbs down he tells the team that it is a murder, not suicide. How did he come to know that it was a murder? None of the windows were left open. If the person jumped, who closed the window?
A couple went to Hawaii for their honeymoon. Unfortunately, the husband returned home alone because his wife had died in a horrible boating accident. The police contacted the travel agent he booked the trip with and arrested him for murdering his wife. How did they know he did it? The travel agent revealed that he had only booked a one-way ticket for his wife.

One murder happened in a village. A police officer instructed two police constables to go to the crime scene, investigate and prepare a preliminary incident report. It was already past midnight and the crime scene was far away from the police station. The two constables decided not to travel to the crime scene and came up with a fake incident report instead. Below is the report. When we reached the spot, the door was open and one man aged between 40-45 was found dead lying on the floor. The light and fan were switched on. There were some items found on a table: – One open bottle of poison, – One half-filled drinking water bottle, – One fountain pen, – One newspaper was flipped open, pages 9 and 10 facing each other, – One tabletop calendar showing June 20, – One notebook. The person committed suicide by drinking the poison. After reading the incident report, the police officer immediately knew that it was fake. How did he know? The page numbers of newspapers, when flipped open, are always even-odd, e.g. 2-3, 4-5, etc. So the police report cannot be true, as pages 9 and 10 of the newspaper cannot be facing each other. Page 10 of the newspaper will be at the back of page 9.
A Japanese ship was leaving the port and on its way to open sea. The captain went to go oil some parts of the ship and took his ring off so it wouldn’t get damaged. He left it on the table next to his bunk. When he returned, it was missing. He had suspected three crew members could be guilty and asked them what they had been doing for the ten minutes that he had been gone. The cook said, “I was in the kitchen preparing tonight’s dinner.” The engineer said, “I was working in the engine room making sure everything was running smoothly.” The seaman said, “I was on the mast correcting the flag because someone had attached it upside down by mistake.” The captain immediately knew who it was. How? It was clearly the seaman. It was a Japanese ship and a Japanese flag is white with a single red dot in the middle. It can’t be hung upside down.
A couple goes on a camping trip, but only the husband returns. He claims that his wife fell off a cliff and died. When the detective gets in touch with the travel agent, he immediately arrests the husband. Why? The travel agent reveals how the husband only booked a one-way ticket for his wife, whereas he booked a return ticket for himself.
Once upon a time, an evil witch kidnapped three married women and turned them into rose bushes. One of the women, who had children, begged the witch to go and see her husband, and the witch agreed. She took the woman to her home and returned her to her rose bush state the next morning. Little did she know that the husband was following, and he decided to rescue his wife. He looked at the three identical rose bushes and suddenly knew which one was his wife. How? The rose bush that was his wife didn’t have any of the night’s dew on the leaves.
Dave and Brad, two popular politicians, met at a club to discuss the overthrow of their party leader. They each ordered a vodka on the rocks. Brad downed his and ordered another. He then drank his second in a gulp and decided to wait before he ordered a third. Meanwhile, Dave, who was sipping his drink, suddenly fell forward dead. Both men were set up for assassination. Why did Dave die and Brad live? Both Dave and Brad were given drinks with poisoned ice cubes. Brad drank his drinks so quickly that the ice didn’t have time to melt and release the poison.
A queen had a bowl of golden apples in her court which were her most treasured possession. One day, one of the apples went missing. She gathered all the members of the court together and told them that the way she would discover the robber was by having them all touch a rusty pot with a rooster in with the lights off. The rooster would then crow when the robber touched the rusty pot. However, the rooster didn’t crow throughout the whole court, touching the rusty pot. Despite this, the queen knew who had stolen the apple. How? By touching the pot, the members of the court would end up with rust on their hands. The robber would have been too scared to touch the pot in case the rooster crowed so that he wouldn’t have any rust on his hands.
A woman shoots her husband and then holds him underwater for 5 minutes. They then go out and enjoy a romantic dinner. How? The woman shoots her husband with a film camera (takes a picture) and then develops it (holds it underwater).
A rich man’s son was kidnapped. The ransom note told him to bring a valuable diamond to a phone booth in the middle of a public park. Plainclothes police officers surrounded the park, intending to follow the criminal or his messenger. The rich man arrived at the phone booth and followed instructions but the police were powerless to prevent the diamond from leaving the park and reaching the crafty villain. What did he do? This is a true story from Taiwan. When the rich man reached the phone booth he found a carrier pigeon in a cage. It had a message attached telling the man to put the diamond in a small bag which was around the pigeon’s neck and to release the bird. When the man did this the police were powerless to follow the bird as it returned across the city to its owner.
One day, when I was six years old, my little sister would not stop crying. It annoyed me so much that I killed her and threw her body down the well. The next day, when I peered down into the well, her body had disappeared. When I was twelve, I got into an argument with my best friend over something stupid. He made me so angry that I killed him and threw his body down the well. The next day, when I checked the well, his body had disappeared. When I was 18 years old, my girlfriend got pregnant. I didn’t want to be a father, so I killed her and threw her body down the well.The next day when I looked in the well, her body had disappeared. When I was 24, I worked in an office and my boss was very mean to me. I couldn’t take it any more so I killed him and threw his body down the well. The next day when I checked the well, his body had disappeared. When I was 30, my mother got sick and was bedridden. I didn’t want to take care of her, so I killed her threw her body down the well. The next day when I looked into the well, her body was still there. I checked the well every day after that, but her body never disappeared. Why didn’t my mother’s body disappear? The mother would remove the bodies from the well and hide them. When she was killed and thrown down the well, nobody removed and hid her.
Agents Yellow, Red, and Green each have a green badge, a yellow badge, and a red badge, but none of them has a badge color that matches their name. They met when called to a conference at headquarters. The Agent with the Green badge said “I have a license to kill!” to which Agent Red replied sarcastically: “What, time?”What color is each Agent’s badge? Note that it’s the agent with the Green badge and not Agent Green talking to Agent Red. As the agent with the green badge has spoken to Agent Red, we know that Agent Red doesn’t have a green badge. We already know he doesn’t have a red badge. Therefore he has a yellow badge. The agent with the green badge cannot be Agent Red, nor can he be Agent Green, therefore he is Agent Yellow. So Agent Yellow has a Green badge, and Agent Red has a yellow badge, meaning Agent Green must have a red badge.
Every day, a woman was seen crossing the border carrying bags of sand on a motorbike. After some time, the border police become suspicious and stopped her, but found she only had sand on her, so they let her go. What was the woman smuggling across the border? Motorbikes.
What mass murderer never goes to jail because he is innocent of any crime? The exterminator.
A renowned chemist is found dead in his lab. There is no clear evidence except a piece of paper lying by the body. The paper is blank other than the name of five elements scrawled across it hastily: – Nickel – Carbon – Oxygen – Lanthanum – Sulfur. The guard reported that three people visited the chemist that day – his sister, Laura; his colleague, Nicolas; and his wife, Tessa. The criminal was arrested immediately. Who was it? The list of chemicals was a clue; their abbreviations spell out the murderer’s name, Ni-C-O-La-S.
A man murders his wife with a knife in their car. Nobody is around to see this. He throws her out of the car being careful not to leave any fingerprints on her body. Next, he throws the knife off of a cliff into a valley where it will never be found and he goes home. An hour later the police call him and tell him that his wife has been murdered and he needs to come to the scene of the crime immediately. As soon as he arrives, he is arrested. How did they know he did it? The police did not tell him the location of the crime scene but he arrived at the correct place.
Acting on an anonymous phone call, the police raid a house to arrest a suspected murderer. They don’t know what he looks like but they know his name is John and that he is inside the house. The police bust in on a carpenter, a lorry driver, a mechanic, and a fireman playing cards. Without hesitation or communication of any kind, they immediately arrest the fireman. How do they know they’ve got their man? The fireman is the only man in the room. The rest of them are women.
“Who shot her?” cried Rogers as he rushed into the hospital three minutes after his ex-wife died from a bullet through her head. “Just a minute, Mr. Rogers,” said Professor Stiggins. “We’ll have to ask you a few questions-routine, you know. Although divorced for the past six months, you have been living in the same house with your ex-wife, have you not?” “That’s right,” replied Rogers. “Had any trouble recently?” “Well, yesterday, when I told her I was going on a business trip, she threatened to commit suicide. In fact, I grabbed a bottle of iodine from her as she was about to drink it. When I left last evening at seven, however, telling her I was spending the night with friends in Sewickley, she made no objection. Returning to town this afternoon,” continued Rogers, “I called my home and the maid answered.” “Just what did she say?” inquired Stiggins. “Oh, Mr. Rogers, they took poor mistress to St. Ann’s Hospital about half an hour ago. Please hurry to her.’ “She was crying, so I couldn’t get anything else out of her; then I hurried here. Where is she?” “The nurse will direct you,” said Stiggins with a nod. “A queer case, this, Professor,” said Inspector Kelley. “These moderns are a little too much for me, I’m afraid. A man and woman living together after being divorced six months!” “A queer case indeed, Inspector,” mused the professor, “and you’d better detain Mr. Rogers. If he didn’t shoot her himself, I’m confident he knows who did.”
Why did the professor advise the Inspector to detain Rogers? Rogers could not have known that his ex-wife had been shot unless he had the guilty knowledge of the crime. The maid did not say why she had been taken to the hospital. Yet Rogers’ first words on entering the hospital were, “Who shot her?”
Two cars were involved in an accident in the center of town. The man who was driving a little green car had overtaken a big black car. The driver had misjudged the distance between him and the on-coming traffic and had to swerve back in, causing the black car to swerve and crash into a shop window. When the occupants of the cars were examined everyone in the green car was okay, but in the black car was one dead man. However, the driver of the green car was not charged with manslaughter, why was this so? The black car was a hearse and was on its way to a funeral.

A man was killed in his office. At the time of murder, there were only four people in the office: Bill, Tom, Harry, and Mike. When police interrogated them, they gave the following statements. Bill: “Tom did it.” Tom: “Bill did it.” Harry: “Tom’s telling the truth.” Mike: “Harry’s not lying.”.. After analysis, the police found out that only one person was telling the truth and the rest were lying. Can you analyse the statements and determine the killer? Tom is the killer and Bill spoke the truth. If Bill was the killer, both Tom and Harry will be telling the truth. If Harry was the killer, none of the statements will be true. If Mike was the killer, none of the statements will be true.
A man is found dead one Saturday morning. He was killed while his wife was sleeping. The wife tells the police all that she knows. She tells them that the cook was cooking breakfast, the maid was cleaning and the butler was getting the mail. The police immediately arrest the person who is responsible. Who is responsible and why? The wife is responsible. The reason is simple – she was supposed to be sleeping but she knew all that had happened.
A dead female body lies at the bottom of a multistory building. It looks as though she committed suicide by jumping from one of the floors. When the detective arrives, he goes to the first floor of the building, opens the closed window, and flips a coin toward the floor. He goes to the second floor and does the exact same thing. He continues to do this until he gets to the top floor of the building. When he comes back down, he states that it was a murder and not a suicide. How does he know that? She couldn’t have jumped from any of the floors because when the detective went to each floor, all of the windows were closed.
It was the first day of school when a young girl was found dead in the classroom. Police had identified four suspects. The Dean claimed that he was in his office the whole day. The Maths teacher claimed that she was giving the midterm exam results to her students. The clerk claimed that he was bringing the mail. The janitor claimed that he was cleaning the toilet on the first floor. Who was lying? The Maths teacher was lying. She cannot be given the midterm exam results on the first day of school.
A rich and handsome man named James Leonard was murdered on a Sunday afternoon. At the time of the murder, there was: the maid, the cook, the butler, the gardener, and the wife. They gave the following statements. Maid: “I was fixing the table.” Cook: “I was cooking breakfast.” Butler: “I was polishing the silverware and the dishes.” Gardener: “I was planting tomato seeds.” Wife: “I was reading a book.” Who did it? The cook did it. You don’t cook breakfast in the afternoon.
A man is discovered dead sitting at his desk, alone in the locked office. He did not commit suicide and there were no weapons in the room. The only clue is a sealed envelope on the desk in front of him. How did he die? The envelope glue was poisoned and when the man licked the envelope to seal it, he died.
A killer told a detective that he would commit his next crime in the only place in Paris where you couldn’t see the Eiffel Tower. How did the detective end up catching him? The criminal was hiding in the Eiffel Tower itself.
Melanie lived with her siblings in a small town. One afternoon, Melanie was found dead in the living room. When the police questioned her siblings, they had both been in the pool from the morning and hadn’t killed her. But the police arrested Melanie’s siblings for her murder. Why? The police checked their hands and found that their hands weren’t wrinkled. If they had been in the pool for a long time their hands would have been wrinkled.
Why was the detective’s wife furious when he arrived home at 9:30 when he said he’d arrive home at 9:30? Because she thought it would be 9:30 PM, and he turned up at 9:30 AM.
A man placed a $100 dollar bill on his desk and left for work. When he returned back the money was gone. He has three suspects: the cook, the maid, and the electrician. The cook said he put the bill under a book on his desk to keep it safe. The man checked and it is no longer there. The maid said she moved the bill to the inside of the book between pages 1 and 2 while she was cleaning. Again, the man checked the book and there was nothing between pages 1 and 2. The electrician said he saw the bill sticking out of the book and he moved it between pages 2 and 3 to keep it safe. Who stole the money? The electrician stole the money. If the man checked for the money between pages 1 and 2 of the book, then pages 2 and 3 will be on opposite sides of a single page and will not be able to hold the money.
Nicole went to the police to report that someone had stolen her vintage ring. When the police got to her house they notice that the window was broken, there was a total mess inside, and there were dirty footprints on the carpet. But, there were no other signs of a break-in. The next day, the police arrested Nicole for fraud. Why? As soon as the police got to the “crime scene” they knew that Nicole has most likely staged the break-in. The glass from the broken window was all outside of the house, meaning that it had been broken from the inside.
On a cold winter day, there was a man standing in front of someone’s house. He didn’t move until the spring, and the owner didn’t mind. Eventually, the man left. Who was he? A snowman.
A girl got killed, and the killer took her iPhone, AirPods, piano, and money. What did the killer take first? Her life.
A happily married couple goes on holiday and locks their house up, with careful instructions for their neighbor to look after the house. The wife hides her jewelry in a very safe place, but when she comes back, it’s gone. Why? She decided to hide it in the freezer – there was a power outage, so the neighbor threw out all the old food as well as her jewels by accident.
A man eats his dinner, goes to his bedroom, turns out the light, and falls asleep. In the morning, he looks outside and immediately throws himself out the window. Why? The man was a lighthouse operator – he wasn’t meant to turn out the light, and so he looks out the window to see a ship crashed on the rocks.
Why did a woman call the police over a man who knocked on her door and claimed that he thought the room was his? If it was his room, he wouldn’t have knocked.
A man and his wife are driving in a car, but it breaks down. He gets out but makes sure that the windows are up and the doors are locked. When he comes back to his car, his wife is dead, there’s blood on the floor, and there is a stranger in the car. What happened? His wife was pregnant and died giving birth while he was away from the car.
There were 5 people in a room, I came and killed 4. How many remain? 2 people remain. Don’t forget to count the murderer.

After a local art theft, six suspects were interviewed. Below is a summary of their statements. Police know that exactly four of them told one lie each and all of the other statements are true. From this information can you tell who committed the crime? Alan said: “It wasn’t Brian. It wasn’t Dave. It wasn’t Eddie.” Brian said: “It wasn’t Alan. It wasn’t Charlie. It wasn’t Eddie.” Charlie said: “It wasn’t Brian. It wasn’t Freddie. It wasn’t Eddie.” Dave said: “It wasn’t Alan. It wasn’t Freddie. It wasn’t Charlie.” Eddie said: “It wasn’t Charlie. It wasn’t Dave. It wasn’t Freddie.” Freddie said: “It wasn’t Charlie. It wasn’t Dave. It wasn’t Alan.”… Charlie committed the crime. If any other person had committed the crime there would not be exactly 4 lies told.
Marta visits her friend Elisa but finds her dead in her house. The police question Marta as to why she thinks Elisa is dead, and how she found out, and she says that she knocked on the door and the window, and when she saw a light on, she breathed on the iced glass to see in. The police arrest Marta for murder. Why? Both sides of the glass would have been frozen, so she wouldn’t have been able to see in at all.
A woman has incontrovertible proof in court that her husband was murdered by her sister. The judge declares, “This is the strangest case I’ve ever seen. Though it’s a cut-and-dried case, this woman cannot be punished.” How can this possibly be? The sisters are Siamese (conjoined) twins.
A man is found murdered in his office. The suspects are Anna, Nina, Jason, and Lee. The only clue is a set of numbers written by the victim on a calendar with his blood. The numbers are 1,4, 9, 10, and 11. Who is the killer? The numbers written on the calendar actually represent the months in the calendar whose initial letter represents the name of the killer. 1 = January [J] , 4 = April [A], 9 = September [S], 10 = October [O], 11 = November [N]… The killer is Jason.
It was the first day in the school when a student is found murdered. There were 4 suspected of this murder. Detective Sherlock Holmes calls each of the suspects separately and asks each of them what they were doing during the time of the murder. Below is the reply of each of them. Math Teacher: “I was in my room giving grades.” Sweeper: “I was cleaning the room” Dean: “I was in my room all day.” Peon: “I was collecting the mails.” If you were a detective then who you will instruct the police to arrest? The math teacher is murder. It was the first day of school. Then how can he give the grades?
Detective Ixolite was investigating a murder. It was a difficult case, and Ixolite was completely stumped until he noticed a message sent to him by the killer cunningly hidden in a newspaper advertisement selling car license plates. Detective Ixolite thought about it for a while, and when he had solved the puzzle, immediately arrested the guilty man. This is the newspaper advert (car license plates for sale) that Inspector Ixolite saw. Car License Plates For Sale: W 05 NWO, H 13 HSR, O 05 EBM, D 08 UNE, U 10 HTY, N 04 BRE, N 16 TTE, I 26 LHC, T 10 AEE, I 26 CNA, X 22 VDA,… How did Ixolite know the advert was a clue for him? Solve the code and determine who Ixolite arrested. The first bit is easy, as the first letter of each plate spells WHODUNNIT IX (A challenge to our detective.) If you read the last three letters in each plate from the bottom up and right to left you to get “ADVANCE EACH LETTER BY THE NUMBER SHOWN”, so advance W by 5 to get B, H by 13 to get U, and so on until you spell BUTLER DID IT.
If a ninja kills in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? No, it makes a corpse.
A man Tom has been killed in his home and detective Sherlock Homes zeros on four suspects who were near the victim during the time of the murder. Below are the name and information of each of these suspects: James: Tom’s best friend, Dereb: Tom’s driver, Zalak: Tom’s maid, Harry: Tom’s Cook… A note is found near Tom’s body and the following is written on the note. 1st of December, 2nd of February, 3rd of March, 4th of June, 5th of October. Detective Sherlock Holmes, investigating this case studies this note carefully and immediately arrests one of the four suspects. If you were the detective, to whom will arrest? 1st of December is D, 2nd of February is e, 3rd of March is r, 4th of June is e and 5th of October is b which makes Dereb who is the murderer.
A policeman found a dead person in the middle of the desert. There were no footprints around him. Who would be the prime suspect? Someone in a wheelchair.
An old man lives alone in a flat. Because of his old age, he is not able to move comfortably and hence most of the things are delivered to his home. On Friday while delivering the mail, the postman felt something suspicious in the flat and tried to look inside through the keyhole and he saw the blood-filled body of the old man. The police arrived at the scene. On the outside of the flat, they found two bottles of warm milk, a Tuesday newspaper, some unopened mail, and some gifts. Who killed the old man and how did the police know who to arrest? The newspaper delivery man was the murderer as the Wednesday and Thursday newspapers were missing. This indicates that he already knew that there is no one to read it.
A wealthy woman lived in a completely circular home. One morning, she is found dead in the front yard. A detective comes along and asks the staff questions. The driver says he was washing the car, the maid says she was hovering in the corners, and the cook says she was preparing lunch. Who is guilty? The maid – there aren’t any corners in a circular house.
It’s 6 pm and George Manly was murdered. Yet no murderer was found. But the cops got witnesses. There were 5 other people in the house at the time of George’s murder. The chef said he was cooking dinner. The gardener said she was gardening. The auntie said she was playing chess with her brother. The wife said she was watching TV. And the grandfather said he was in his wheelchair. So who murdered George Manly? The aunt killed George Manly. There were 5 people in the house besides George – The chef, gardener, auntie, wife, and grandfather. But the aunt said that she was playing chess with her brother, which makes it 6 people. The aunt was lying.
A crime has been committed on Main Street. The main suspect is a man named Simon Bates. It was said that a man had been walking along the pathway when he was suddenly shot in the stomach. The suspect had brown hair, and blue eyes, and wore a baggy Armani just like Simon Bates’. Simon was asked to tell the story right from the beginning. “Well,” said Simon, “I was just hanging around the park when I saw this man walking along the pathway. Suddenly, a guy came up from behind him and shot him! I ran home as fast as I could.” The policemen asked him to give a description of the murderer. “He had a red mustache, red hair, and a baggy Armani suit on.” “I think this man is telling a lie,” said one of the policemen. How did he know? How can the murderer shoot him in the stomach if he came up behind the man?
You are a junior detective investigating a case. Boys at an apartment complain that every day, they have an egg-spinning competition with only raw eggs, and every day one particular boy wins. The boys want you to find out how. You are observing the boy spinning an egg when suddenly it drops to the floor. The apartment clerk casually hands him a broom to clean it up, as if it happens every day. You now know why the boy always wins the daily competition. How? The clerk handed the boy a broom, so the egg the boy was spinning must have been hard-boiled. If the egg was raw, the clerk would have handed the boy a mop.
At the scene of a heinous crime, five suspects, one of whom is the guilty party, are being interrogated by a detective. Each of the suspects gives one statement and it later transpires that just three of these statements are correct. These are the statements: Uncle Jack: “Uncle Jim committed the murder” Aunt Mary: “I did not do it” Cousin Stewart: “It was not Cousin Margaret” Uncle Jim: “Uncle Jack is lying when he says I did it” Cousin Margaret: “Aunt Mary is telling the truth” Who committed the murder? Cousin Margaret. The statements of Aunty Mary, Uncle Jim, and cousin Margaret are true.
One evening there was a murder in the home of a married couple, their son and daughter. One of these four people murdered one of the others. One of the members of the family witnessed the crime. The other one helped the murderer. These are the things we know for sure: 1. The witness and the one who helped the murderer were not of the same sex. 2. The oldest person and the witness were not of the same sex. 3. The youngest person and the victim were not of the same sex. 4. The one who helped the murderer was older than the victim. 5. The father was the oldest member of the family. 6. The murderer was not the youngest member of the family. Who was the murderer? The mother was the murderer. We know from (3) that the youngest person was not the victim, from (4) that the youngest person was not the helper, and from (6) that the youngest person was not the killer. The youngest person can only have been the witness, therefore.mWe can work out from (5) that the father was the oldest, from (2) that the youngest person must have been the daughter. Therefore the next to the youngest must have been the son and the next to the oldest, the mother. From the statements, we can sort out the members based on age, from oldest to youngest as: Father, Mother, Son, Daughter. We can come to the following conclusion: Mother – Murderer, Father – Helper, Son – Victim, Daughter – Witness..
Lucretia Borgia invited a prospective victim to lunch. They ate a hearty meal of roast venison, with a selection of fresh vegetables, all washed down with the finest wine imported from Bordeaux in France. After the meal, they finished off with figs and grapes freshly picked. “Just one apple left”, said Lucretia, “I insist you have that.” “No”, said the guest, “I couldn’t”. “Tell you what”, said Lucretia, “we will share it”, and promptly sliced it neatly in two with her sharpest knife. The guest and Lucretia started to eat their respective halves when suddenly the guest’s eyes rolled towards the ceiling and he keeled over backward stone dead. “Another victim successfully despatched,” thought Lucretia. Why was Lucretia not poisoned after eating the apple? Lucretia used a knife coated with just one edge of cyanide/ poison. When she sliced the apple in two, only the victim’s half was poisoned.

A man was found dead in his study. He was slumped over his desk and a gun was in his hand. There was a cassette recorder on his desk. When the police entered the room and pressed the play button on the tape recorder they heard: “I can’t go on. I have nothing to live for.” Then there was the sound of a gunshot. How did the detective immediately know that the man had been murdered and it wasn’t a suicide?The dead man could not have rewound the tape. Someone else must have done it.
A man is stranded on forest-covered island. One day, when the wind is blowing from the west, lightning strikes the west end of the island and sets fire to the forest. The fire is very violent, burning everything in its path, and without intervention the fire will burn the whole island, killing the man in the process. There are cliffs around the island, so he cannot jump off. How can the man survive the fire without any buckets or any other means to put out the fire? The man picks up a piece of wood and lights it from the fire on the west end of the island. He runs to the east end of the island and starts a new fire. The wind will cause that fire to burn out the eastern end and he can then shelter in the burnt area.
Four kids having five rocks each were playing a game in which they need to throw the rock at the solid area in the water. Kid1: Succeeded in throwing three rocks at a solid area but one of the rock sunk. Kid3: His aim was so bad that all rocks got sunk. Kid4: He was awesome and none of the rocks got sunk. Kid2 was the winner but was struck by a rock in the head and died. Who killed Kid2? Kid1, he was left with one rock.
The storeroom of your house is locked with a certain kind of padlock that can be closed without a key but requires a key to open which you own and there is no duplicate key. You decide to move your old stuff to the storeroom. After keeping the things carefully, you lock them back again perfectly. The next day, a dead body is found in your closed store room. Since only you have the key to the store room and you live alone, the police suspect you as the murderer. You can’t understand anything when suddenly a thought strikes your mind. There is a possible way using which the dead body could have been placed by someone else. Can you find that way so that you can tell the police and prove yourself to be innocent? When you were inside the room, the murderer replaced the padlock with his own one that was identical to your original padlock. When you locked the storeroom, you did not require a key and there was nothing abnormal for you. When you left, the murderer opened the padlock with his key, placed the dead body inside, and replaced his padlock with the original padlock back in place. He then locked it without any problem.
A man was shot to death while in his car. There were no powder marks on his clothing, which indicated that the gunman was outside the car. However, all the windows were up and the doors locked. After a close inspection was made, the only bullet holes discovered were on the man’s body. How was he murdered? The victim was in a convertible. He was shot when the top was down.
Anderson, Biggs, and Carpenter were staying together at a place by the seaside. One day they went out in a boat and were a mile at sea when a rifle was fired on shore in their direction. It seems that Anderson only heard the report of the gun, Biggs only saw the smoke, and Carpenter merely saw the bullet strike the water near them. Which of them first knew of the discharge of the rifle? Biggs, who saw the smoke, would be first; Carpenter, who saw the bullet strike the water, would be second; and Anderson, who heard the report, would be last of all.
A detective who was mere days from cracking an international smuggling ring has suddenly gone missing. While inspecting his last-known location, you find a note: 710 57735 34 5508 51 7718. Currently, there are 3 suspects: Bill, John, and Todd. Can you break the detective’s code and find the criminal’s name? The criminal is Bill. If you look at the note upside down, you’ll notice that the numbers resemble letters and that those letters form legible sentences. The message is “Bill is boss. He sells oil.”
You intercepted this coded message sent by an enemy operative: YYURYYUBICURYY4ME.. What message is he sending? Too wise you are, too wise you be, I see you are too wise for me.
Adam killed his wife in front of so many people. Yet, no one has the power to accuse him of the murder and send him to prison for his crime. How is this possible? Adam is a hangman or executioner by profession. Apparently, his wife has been sentenced to death and he had to do it with his own hands.
One snowy night, Sherlock Holmes was in his house sitting by a fire. All of a sudden a snowball came crashing through his window, breaking it. Holmes got up and looked out the window just in time to see three neighborhood kids who were brothers running around a corner. Their names were John Crimson, Mark Crimson, and Paul Crimson. The next day Holmes got a note on his door that read “? Crimson. He broke your window.” Which of the three Crimson brothers should Sherlock Holmes question about the incident? He should question Mark Crimson. “?” = question MARK, so the note on the door reads “Question Mark Crimson. He broke your window.”
A lady is found dead in her room with the poison bottle lying beside her body. Initial investigation suggests that she has committed suicide as traces of poison were found in her blood. However, detective Sherlock Holmes was called to investigate this case. On arriving at the room Sherlock Holmes examined the room very carefully and he finds tickets for her air travel for the evening same day and her suitcase packed in her room. He immediately declares that this is a murder case. Why? Because if anyone wants to do suicide, he/she will do the future planning and pack the bags for the travel.
There are five people. One of them shot and killed one of the other five. 1. Dan ran in the NY City marathon yesterday with one of the innocent men. 2. Mike considered being a farmer before he moved to the city. 3. Jeff is a topnotch computer consultant and wants to install Ben’s new computer next week. 4. The murderer had his leg amputated last month. 5. Ben met Jack for the first time six months ago. 6. Jack has been in seclusion since the crime. 7. Dan used to drink heavily. 8. Ben and Jeff built their last computers together. 9. The murderer is Jack’s brother. They grew up together in Seattle. 10. Police arrived at the scene and immediately finds the murderer. Who was the murderer? Jeff killed Mike. Jack is not the murderer, because he is the brother of the murderer. Dan can’t be the murderer since he ran a marathon, and the murderer recently had his leg amputated, and wouldn’t be running a marathon of any magnitude that quickly. Ben is not the murderer if he just met Jack since Jack and the murderer grew up together. This leaves Jeff and Mike. Since Jeff is still alive (he wants to install a new computer next week) he must be the murderer. Mike also didn’t grow up with Jack. It has been determined that Jack, Dan, and Jeff are all alive. Ben must also be alive since Jeff plans to install Ben’s computer next week. This means that Jeff killed Mike.
Six men, namely Martin Freeman, Jonah Jameson, Terry Singer, Mike Cooper, Jim Condon, and Sylvian Bogard were in an elevator together. Unexpectedly, the lights went out. When the lights came back, Martin Freeman’s wallet missing which contained a confidential item. Detectives were called to the scene. They interrogated the suspects, the witnesses, and people who were familiar with the suspects. They collected physical evidence (hair samples, fiber samples, etc.) from the crime scene as well. Overall, they were able to collect fifteen clues, but they could still not find the culprit. Following are the clues. 1. No two suspects have the same weight, color shoes, color umbrella, color car, or hair color. 2. The suspect who owns a pink car was wearing tan shoes. 3. The suspect who weighs 180 pounds owns an orange car. 4. Terry Singer owns an orange car. 5. The suspect who owns a blue car was wearing purple shoes. 6. The suspect who weighs 150 pounds was wearing tan shoes. 7. Mike Cooper was carrying a pink umbrella. 8. Sylvian Bogard has black hair. 9. Jonah Jameson weighs 210 pounds. 10. The suspect who weighs 190 pounds was wearing purple shoes. 11. The suspect who was carrying a black umbrella is not the one who was wearing blue shoes. 12. The thief owns a blue car. 13. The suspect who owns a white car is not the one who weighs 170 pounds. 14. Jim Condon was wearing brown shoes. 15. The suspect who weighs 190 pounds is not the one who has black hair. Can you find the culprit? Charlie committed the crime. If any other person had committed the crime there would not be exactly 4 lies told.

Do you have some other detective riddles that can stump your friends and family? Share them in the comments so that we can try and solve them!

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Michele Tripple

Michele Tripple is a renowned author and expert in the fields of parenting, relationships, and personal development. With her degree in marriage and family studies, her experience as a Family Life Educator, and over a decade of experience as a professional writer, Michele has authored books that provide practical advice and insights into improving family dynamics and personal growth. Her work is celebrated for its blend of research-driven information and relatable, real-world applications. Michele has been a keynote speaker at conferences and has contributed to numerous publications and media outlets, solidifying her reputation as an authoritative voice in her field and helping families build relationships.