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What am I? riddles
I have branches, but no fruit, trunk or leaves. What am I?
A first-person riddle that sounds like a tree and is not one. The key is a word that moved from the forest into business.
I have branches, but no fruit, trunk or leaves. What am I?
Hint: Think money, not trees.
Reveal the answer
A bank
A bank has branch offices, not tree branches.
How to solve it (spoilers)
How to think about it
- The speaker has branches but none of the other parts of a tree, so these branches are not wooden.
- List things that have branches in a figurative sense: rivers, families, libraries, companies.
- The hint says to think about money. Which of those branches handles cash?
- A bank has branch offices in many towns, and not a single leaf.
Why “a bank” is the answer
Banks call their local offices branches, so a bank has many branches while having no trunk, fruit or leaves. The riddle leans on the fact that “branch” now describes any smaller part of a larger organization. Rivers and libraries also have branches, which is why the money hint matters.
Common wrong answers
- A river. Rivers have branches and no leaves, so this is a reasonable guess; the money hint points to a bank instead.
- A dead tree. A dead tree still has a trunk, which the riddle rules out.
Related riddles
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- What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?
- I’m tall when I’m young and short when I’m old. What am I?
- What runs but never walks, has a mouth but never talks?
- What has cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and water but no fish?
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