Perhaps someone can answer this

[TrickyBob]

In 4th grade we were reading Redwall. This somehow got off into a discussion about riddles.

My 4th grade teacher said that he once asked his class this riddle and no one could ever answer, it wasn't until years later (as in, the girl had graduated college) before a girl could give him an answer. None of us have ever been able to figure it out.

The "riddle" is, as follows;

"A bell tolls, a man dies, a bell tolls"

[sunflower22]

Is that a question? I don't get it lol

[cahabalily]

That doesn't make sense. It isn't even a riddle.

[sunflower22]

Did he get hanged in a bell tower? There is my official guess.

[Deleted]

"This kind of thing should probably be asked in chatroom, if at all, on this forum, but...

The classic would be, "A bell tolls, a man dies" and the solution would be:

The man is blind, and is swimming in the harbor. When it's time for him to come in, his wife is supposed to ring a bell to let him know which way to swim to get to shore. However, a buoy bell tolls first, and the man, thinking it was his wife's signal, swims out towards the buoy. He becomes exhausted and drowns.

Or this could be a variation on the classic, A rope breaks, a bell rings, a man dies, in which case 2 possible answers are:

A blind man enjoys walking near a cliff and uses the sound of a buoy to gauge his distance from the edge. One day the buoy's anchor rope breaks, allowing the buoy to drift away from the shore. When it rings, the man thinks he's further away from the edge than he is, walks over it, and falls to his death.

or:

The man is a bell ringer. One day the rope breaks, and he falls down the shaft and dies.

Hope that helps, and we'll call it a spoiler."


that is not a riddle. that is just fucking ridiculous.

[fuckstick]

Uhhh yeah thats not a riddle.

[leeann]

Google gives:
The man is blind, and is swimming in the harbor. When it's time for him to come in, his wife is supposed to ring a bell to let him know which way to swim to get to shore. However, a buoy bell tolls first, and the man, thinking it was his wife's signal, swims out towards the buoy. He becomes exhausted and drowns.

A blind man enjoys walking near a cliff and uses the sound of a buoy to gauge his distance from the edge. One day the buoy's anchor rope breaks, allowing the buoy to drift away from the shore. When it rings, the man thinks he's further away from the edge than he is, walks over it, and falls to his death.


Pretty ridiculous "riddle" IMO

[EmilieMadison]

I think you forgot the part that says, "What happened?"

And this isn't really a "riddle". It's a weird fucking "scenario".

[sunflower22]

The answer then must be "The man is stupid."

[Deleted]

this is really the terrible punchline of a really fucking awful short story that your douchebag coworker tells you.

i mean, when you think about it.

[lafawnduh]

That girl answered it years later because she googled it.

[TrickyBob]

Well, that's why I ended up putting it as "riddle" because the more I looked at it, I'm like "this isn't a riddle but I don't know wtf to call it".

I have Googled it before, but most people I've talked to have never heard of it before or it's just guesses at what happened and no known idea of where it came from.

And you're right, I did miss putting "what happened?" at the end.

[pinkplasticdoll]

I have heard this before but didn't hear the solution and still cant tell you wtf it means.