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Logic riddles
A man shaves several times a day, yet he still has a beard. How?
A situation riddle with a hidden assumption. You assume the man is shaving himself, and the riddle never actually says that.
A man shaves several times a day, yet he still has a beard. How?
Hint: Think of his job.
Reveal the answer
He is a barber
A barber shaves other people all day, not himself.
How to solve it (spoilers)
How to think about it
- State the assumption: shaving several times a day should leave him clean-shaven.
- Question it. The riddle says he shaves, not that he shaves himself.
- Who shaves other people as a job, many times a day?
- A barber shaves his customers and can keep his own beard as long as he likes.
Why “he is a barber” is the answer
A barber shaves other men all day, so the sentence “he shaves several times a day” is true even though his own beard is untouched. The riddle relies on the reader filling in “himself” where the words leave a gap. Spotting unstated assumptions is the core skill in this whole category of lateral-thinking riddles.
Common wrong answers
- He has a fast-growing beard. Nobody grows a full beard back between shaves in a single day; the riddle is about who is being shaved.
- He uses a broken razor. This makes the shaving pointless rather than explaining it; the barber answer explains every word.
Related riddles
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- What goes up but never comes down?
- What belongs to you, but other people use it more than you do?
- The more of this there is, the less you see. What is it?
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