Official Riddles Thread

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Riddles :D

Asalaam alaykum :D
I don't think there's a thread for riddles so I've started one. I'll post more later (:

Here's one to get you started/thinking:

The man who invented it doesn't want it. The man who bought it doesn't need it. The man who needs it doesn't know it. What is it?
 
Re: Riddles :D

It's a coffin. I've heard that one before: "The man who made it did refuse it; the man who bought it would not use it; the man who got it did not know if he got it, aye or no."

Here's one I've invented. Let me test it on you guys and see if it's a good riddle...

"You will find this stone on the sea's far shore
Seek the circles of the fearful if you'll hear no more
T'was the one thing by which a bad store was relieved
It is you; it is me--if Matthew's believed"

What is it?
 
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Re: Riddles :D

^ air?
As for he one from yahya, dunno to cryptic?

Here's my favorite:

"The beginning of eternity,
The end of time and space.
The beginning of the end,
And the end of every place."
 
Re: Riddles :D

^ Although I'm not sure but here goes: could it possibly be the letter E?.
 
Are you really supposed to give people hints when there's a riddle? Besides, I'm testing it out. Maybe someone could try giving it a guess?

EDIT: All right, I guess it is only fair to mention that I worded it in an archaic style for a reason. It's supposed to echo the old world type of riddles, as you'd find in one of those collections like Alvin Schwartz's. As such, *think* archaic. That *is* a hint but it may be a necessary one for the sake of not being misleading in terms of style.
 
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Actually, I think I'm just going to go ahead and give the answer since this isn't a very good riddle after all.

It's salt.

Being a ground-up mineral you'll find from one edge of the sea to the other, salt is also the object of an old superstition in which people throw circles of the substance over their shoulder in order to ward off evil spirits. In ancient times it was used as a preservative to keep things from spoiling which otherwise would have been badly stored for certain, and Matthew 5:13 (quoting from memory, at least) says, "You are the salt of the earth."

Only after I posted the riddle did I realize that in order for the solution to be explained I would have to write a mini-Wikipedia entry. A decent riddle is a game of logic, not a "final Jeopardy" round. Maybe I'll do better next time, God willing.
 
The *traditional* answer is “a hole” but I have always thought that “light” is just as valid, depending on which definition of “lighter” you’re assuming.
 
M.B said:
What does man love more than life, Fear more than death or mortal strife, What the poor have, the rich require, And what contented men desire, What misers spend, and spendthrifts save, And all men carry to the grave?
Click to expand...

I like this one a lot! I would *almost* agree with "nothing" but I don't think the last part fits. I was toying with the answer "their own selves" myself, but I'm just as unsure of that one. I mean, contented men desire it?? Let me chew on this.
 
Actually it's starting to sound familiar. Maybe the answer *is* supposed to be "nothing". But I don't agree. We take our *actions* to our graves with us.
 
I didn't mean barzakh. I meant death itself, which is what anyone means by "to the grave". You take your actions to your death with you.

Anyway, give me a day or two to think of a better riddle of my own. In the words of the classic film "Time Bandits", "There is an idea forming in my head...."
 
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All right, here’s one which should be easier.

Though I stand and block I’ll just as soon kill you
Only when fat am I capable of giving chase and hunting you down;
Otherwise I'm just as quick but quite harmless
More capricious than your heart,
A famous shapeshifter, a trickster I am—or have you forgotten? You knew it once
Here I am, then gone again—
So fast you could never keep up, and yet I hardly seem to move at all
All you need do is glance at me once to know my intentions
And yet all men’s centuries of studying me have been in vain
What am I?
 
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Actually there may still be a flaw in it. Since the purpose is to test this thing out and see if it's any good I was thinking of going ahead and revealing the answer so that I could ask you guys what you think of it and if the wording is indeed off in its current form, but I thought I would give everybody one more chance to take a crack at it first. Any takers?
 

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