What gets wetter the more it dries?

How to think about it

1. Read the question as a contradiction: something is drying, and at the same time it is getting wetter. Two different things must be involved.
2. Separate the two roles. One thing is being dried; another thing is doing the drying and soaking up the water.
3. Think of objects whose whole job is to absorb water from something else. Cloth and paper come to mind first.
4. Pick the one you reach for after a shower. It dries you and ends up damp itself.

Why “a towel” is the answer

A towel dries your skin or your dishes by pulling water into its own fibers, so the more drying it does, the wetter it becomes. The riddle only sounds impossible because it hides the fact that “dries” has an object: the towel dries something else, not itself. Once you see two things in the sentence instead of one, the contradiction disappears.

Common wrong answers

• A sponge. A sponge also soaks up water, and many people accept it. The classic answer is a towel because a towel’s purpose is drying, while a sponge is for wiping and cleaning.
• The sun. Sunshine dries things without getting wet itself, so it fails the first half of the question.