I love riddles, but the one that aggravates me the most is also one of the oldest, dating from 1650 or earlier:
As I was going to St Ives
I met a man with seven wives
And every wife had seven sacks
And every sack had seven cats
And every cat had seven kits
Kits, cats, sacks, wives
How many were going to St Ives?
The sucker’s answer is 2,401 or 2,402, depending on whether you include the narrator. This response is typically followed by a clever smirk by the riddler, because the actual answer is one: everyone is coming from St Ives except the narrator. Furthermore, the narrator is not the group of listed items, so in some circles the answer dwindles to zero.
This riddle plays the language game so much that it’s unfair for the victim not to be able to play it back. What is the context of meet? There is no preposition from or to detailing the travels of the narrator’s polygamous friend. Just as the victim is mocked for believing everyone is travelling together, the questioner should be chided for assuming the two characters are travelling in opposite directions.
It’s generally just a horrible Mother Goose rhyme to read to your five year-old. The ambiguity of it will make his face implode. Stick to the tried-and-true questions with no loopholes: how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?