70 Best Mystery Riddles for Kids & Teens (With Answers!)

Mystery riddles are perfect for kids who love to think, question clues, and solve puzzles step by step. They’re a little more challenging than funny riddles, but still fun enough to enjoy together as a family.

We love using mystery riddles during car rides, at the dinner table, or anytime kids want something to figure out instead of just laugh at. These riddles encourage logic, reasoning, and creative thinking without feeling like schoolwork.

Below you’ll find our favorite mystery riddles for kids, teens, and families, all organized by difficulty and with answers included.

Mystery riddles are logic-based questions that use clues to lead to surprising answers. They’re great for kids, teens, and families who enjoy problem-solving and detective-style thinking. All of the riddles below include answers.

Top 10 Mystery Riddles

1. Riddle: A man is found dead one Sunday morning. He got killed while his wife was asleep. The wife told the cops all that she knew. She told them that the cook was busy preparing breakfast, her maid was cleaning, and the butler was getting the mail. Cops arrested the killer who was responsible. Who is responsible and why?
   Answer: The wife, as she was sleeping, otherwise she wouldn’t know all the other details.
2. Riddle: A man walks into a bar and asks for a glass of water. The bartender pulls out a gun. The man says “thank you” and leaves. Why?
   Answer: The man had hiccups, and the scare cured them.
3. Riddle: A cowboy rode into town on Friday and left three days later on Friday. How?
   Answer: His horse was named Friday.
4. Riddle: Two fathers and two sons are in a car, but there are only three people. How?
   Answer: A grandfather, father, and son.
5. Riddle: A man shaves every day but still has a beard. How?
   Answer: He is a barber.
6. Riddle: A girl fell off a ladder but wasn’t hurt. Why?
   Answer: She fell from the bottom rung.
7. Riddle: A woman shoots her husband, then holds him underwater for five minutes. Later, they go out to dinner. How?
   Answer: She took his picture and developed it.
8. Riddle: A man dies of old age on his 25th birthday. How is this possible?
   Answer: He was born on February 29.
9. Riddle: What has keys but can’t open locks?
   Answer: A piano.
10. Riddle: What gets wetter the more it dries?
    Answer: A towel.

Easy Mystery Riddles for Kids

11. Riddle: What has a face and two hands but no arms or legs?
    Answer: A clock.
12. Riddle: What has to be broken before you can use it?
    Answer: An egg.
13. Riddle: What can you catch but not throw?
    Answer: A cold.
14. Riddle: What has one eye but can’t see?
    Answer: A needle.
15. Riddle: What runs but never walks?
    Answer: Water.
16. Riddle: What has many teeth but can’t bite?
    Answer: A comb.
17. Riddle: What goes up but never comes down?
    Answer: Your age.
18. Riddle: What has words but never speaks?
    Answer: A book.
19. Riddle: A man was found dead on Sunday morning. His wife said she was sleeping. Who did it?
    Answer: The wife — there is no Sunday morning newspaper.
20. Riddle: A man walks into a bar and asks for a glass of water. The bartender pulls out a gun. The man thanks him and leaves. Why?
    Answer: The man had hiccups, and the scare cured them.
21. Riddle: A cowboy rode into town on Friday and left three days later on Friday. How?
    Answer: His horse was named Friday.
22. Riddle: A man shaves every day but still has a beard. How?
    Answer: He is a barber.
23. Riddle: A man died of old age on his 25th birthday. How?
    Answer: He was born on February 29.
24. Riddle: What has hands but cannot clap?
    Answer: A clock.
25. Riddle: What belongs to you, but others use it more than you do?
    Answer: Your name.
26. Riddle: What gets wetter the more it dries?
    Answer: A towel.
27. Riddle: What can travel around the world while staying in one place?
    Answer: A stamp.
28. Riddle: What has keys but can’t open locks?
    Answer: A piano.

Medium Mystery Riddles

29. Riddle: What can travel around the world while staying in one corner?
    Answer: A stamp.
30. Riddle: What gets bigger the more you take away?
    Answer: A hole.
31. Riddle: What has a neck but no head, and two arms but no hands?
    Answer: A shirt.
32. Riddle: What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
    Answer: The letter “M”.
33. Riddle: What can fill a room but takes up no space?
    Answer: Light.
34. Riddle: What has four wheels and flies?
    Answer: A garbage truck.
35. Riddle: What can you catch but not throw?
    Answer: A cold.
36. Riddle: What has one eye but can’t see?
    Answer: A needle.
37. Riddle: What runs but never walks?
    Answer: A river.
38. Riddle: What has words but never speaks?
    Answer: A book.
39. Riddle: What jumps higher than a building?
    Answer: Everything — buildings don’t jump.
40. Riddle: What two things can you never eat for breakfast?
    Answer: Lunch and dinner.
41. Riddle: What is so delicate that saying its name breaks it?
    Answer: Silence.
42. Riddle: I only live when there is light, but I die if light shines on me. What am I?
    Answer: A shadow.
43. Riddle: What gets bigger the more you take away?
    Answer: A hole.
44. Riddle: What can fill a room but takes up no space?
    Answer: Light.
45. Riddle: I have cities without houses, rivers without water, and forests without trees. What am I?
    Answer: A map.
46. Riddle: What needs an answer but doesn’t ask a question?
    Answer: A telephone.
47. Riddle: You draw a line. How can you make it longer without touching it?
    Answer: Draw a shorter line next to it.
48. Riddle: When you pass the person in second place in a race, what place are you in?
    Answer: Second place.

Hard Mystery Riddles for Teens & Big Kids

49. Riddle: I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with wind. What am I?
    Answer: An echo.
50. Riddle: I am tall when I am young and short when I am old. What am I?
    Answer: A candle.
51. Riddle: I have cities but no houses, rivers but no water, and forests but no trees. What am I?
    Answer: A map.
52. Riddle: The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?
    Answer: Footsteps.
53. Riddle: You see a boat filled with people, yet there isn’t a single person on board. How?
    Answer: All the people are married.
54. Riddle: A man pushes his car to a hotel and tells the owner he’s bankrupt. Why?
    Answer: He’s playing Monopoly.
55. Riddle: If I have it, I don’t share it. If I share it, I don’t have it. What is it?
    Answer: A secret.
56. Riddle: I am all around but cannot be seen. I can be captured but not held. I don’t have a throat, but I can be heard. What am I?
    Answer: Wind.

Detective-Style Mystery Riddles

57. Riddle: British Police inspect a room where there are no windows, no doors, no tables and is almost empty except there is just a puddle of water. They found a dead woman who obviously hung herself from the ceiling, but they are not able to figure out how this had happened. Sherlock and John Watson entered the crime scene and were easily able to solve the case. How did the women die?
    Answer: She stood on a large block of ice that melted.
58. Riddle: Sherlock breaks into a crime scene. The victim is the owner who is slumped dead on a chair and have a bullet hole in his head. A gun lies on the floor and a cassette recorder is found on the table. On pressing the play button, Sherlock hears the message ‘I have committed sins in my life and now I offer my soul to the great Lord’ and followed a gunshot Sherlock smiles and informed the police that’s its a murder. Why did he think so?
    Answer: A dead man couldn’t rewind the tape.
59. Riddle: There are five people. One of them shot and killed one of the other five. We know the following clues: 1. Dan ran in the NY City Marathon yesterday with one of the innocent men. 2. Mike consider being a farmer before he moved to the city. 3. Jeff is a top-notch 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. Consider yourself to be a famous detective “Sherlock Homles”, Can you find the killer?
    Answer: Jeff Killed Mike ( 1. Jack is not the murderer because he is the brother of the murderer. 2. 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. 3. Ben is not the murderer if he just met Jack since Jack and the murderer grew up together. 4. This leaves Jeff and Mike. Since Jeff is still alive (he wants to install a new computer next week, present tense) 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 computer next week. This means that Jeff killed Mike. )
60. Riddle: A calendar shows 7B91011 written in a rush. Who is the killer?
    Answer: Jason — the letters spell J-A-S-O-N using months.
61. Riddle: A man drank the punch at a party and left quite early. Others who drank the punch died because of poisoning. Why didn’t the man die?
    Answer: The poison was in the ice, and the man drank the punch when the ice hadn’t melted.
62. Riddle: Two friends have gone on a trip, but only friend A returns and says that friend B fell into the valley while trekking. The police came and arrested friend A a week later and said he’d murdered friend B. How did they know?
    Answer: The travel agent mentioned that friend A had booked only one return ticket before the trip.
63. Riddle: A girl was at her mother’s funeral, where she met an interesting man and fell for him right away. Before they could exchange numbers, he was nowhere to be seen. She didn’t even know his name. Later the police arrested her for killing her older brother. Why did she kill him?
    Answer: She hoped the man would show up for her brother’s funeral too!
64. Riddle: A lighthouse worker turns off the light and later learns he killed 100 sailors. How?
    Answer: Ships crashed without the lighthouse.
65. Riddle: A man goes to sleep after an exhausting, long day of work. He turns off all the lights and falls asleep within a few seconds. Waking up, he finds that he has killed 100 sailors. He does not sleepwalk and has slept all night without waking up even once. How is this possible?
    Answer: He was a lighthouse operator.

Family-Friendly Mystery Riddles

66. Riddle: What has hands but can’t clap?
    Answer: A clock.
67. 6Riddle: What has a head and a tail but no body?
    Answer: A coin.
68. Riddle: What belongs to you but others use it more than you do?
    Answer: Your name.
69. Riddle: What has an eye but can’t see?
    Answer: A needle.
70. Riddle: What has many keys but can’t open a single lock?
    Answer: A piano.

How to Play Mystery Riddles With Kids

• Read aloud
• Let kids ask questions
• Encourage guesses
• Explain the logic together
• Celebrate thinking, not just correct answers

Love Riddles? Check out even more here!

• See all riddles for kids and families
• Detective Riddles
• Dad Riddles
• Animal Riddles
• Number Riddles

Mystery riddles are one of our favorite ways to get kids thinking without pressure. They turn quiet moments into problem-solving fun and give families something to work through together.

Save this list for game night, car rides, or anytime your kids ask, “Can you give us a riddle?”

Mystery Riddles FAQs