50 Detective Riddles For Mystery Lovers
Put on your detective hat and sharpen your observation skills with these 50 short and simple detective riddles. Each mystery comes with a space before the answer to give your brain a chance to solve it before checking below. Let the mystery games begin!
- A man is found dead in a room with 52 bicycles. What happened?
Answer: He was caught cheating in cards (bicycle cards).
- A woman shot her husband, held him underwater, and hung him. He came back alive. How?
Answer: She took his photo and developed it.
- A man was murdered on a Sunday. Everyone claimed they were busy. The wife was cooking, the maid was cleaning, and the gardener was watering plants. Who did it?
Answer: The maid — there’s no cleaning on Sunday!
- A man pushes his car to a hotel and loses all his money. What happened?
Answer: He’s playing Monopoly.
- A girl fell off a 30 ft ladder but didn’t get hurt. Why?
Answer: She fell off the bottom rung.
- A man is found hanging in a locked room with a puddle below. What happened?
Answer: He stood on ice that melted.
- A dead man is found in the desert with a pack on his back. What happened?
Answer: His parachute didn’t open.
- A man enters a bar and asks for water. The bartender pulls a gun. Why?
Answer: The man had hiccups.
- The lights go out, and a man dies. Why?
Answer: He was on life support.
- A man is found dead in a cabin in the woods. What happened?
Answer: It was an airplane cabin crash.
- The man in the elevator only presses the button to his floor when it rains. Why?
Answer: He’s short and uses his umbrella to reach it.
- A man wakes up and sees the sun. He’s scared. Why?
Answer: He’s a vampire.
- A man is found dead in front of a building. The detective calls it a suicide. Why?
Answer: There were no signs of struggle or forced entry.
- A man is killed with a matchstick. How?
Answer: It was the match that started a fire.
- A man walks into a room and sees a dead body and a gun. No one heard a shot. Why?
Answer: It was a silenced gun.
- A boy and a doctor are fishing. The boy is the doctor’s son, but the doctor isn’t the boy’s father. Who is the doctor?
Answer: His mother.
- A woman dies after eating a poisoned apple, but her friend who ate from the same apple is fine. Why?
Answer: She ate the poisoned part.
- A man runs home, but no one is there. Why is he safe?
Answer: He hit a home run in baseball.
- A man is found dead in his study. There are no windows and the door is locked. How?
Answer: He committed suicide.
- A girl drops something and it breaks but no one hears it. Why?
Answer: It was a feather.
- The crime scene has water and glass. What happened?
Answer: The fishbowl broke.
- A man is found in a field with a bag on his back. What’s the story?
Answer: He jumped from a plane, parachute failed.
- A woman leaves a cup of tea on the table, returns and drinks it, but dies. Why?
Answer: The poison was in the ice.
- A man shot in a room but there’s no blood. Why?
Answer: It was a paintball gun.
- A man reads a note, smiles, and jumps out the window. Why?
Answer: The note proved his innocence.
- A man calls his dog. The dog runs in, but it’s deaf. How?
Answer: The dog saw him, not heard.
- A detective touches the coffee and knows it’s poisoned. How?
Answer: It was cold while everything else was hot.
- A man is found drowned in his bathtub with no water around. What happened?
Answer: He was held underwater then drained.
- A woman is found dead in a locked house. Nothing is stolen. What gives it away?
Answer: No fingerprints on the doorknob.
- The killer leaves behind no footprints in the snow. Why?
Answer: They walked backward in their own steps.
- A man is found dead with a pen and paper. What happened?
Answer: He left a suicide note.
- Someone steals your watch but it’s never found. What happened?
Answer: It was swallowed.
- A man eats poison, yet lives. How?
Answer: It was an antidote capsule.
- There are two bodies near a cabin. How did they die?
Answer: Plane crash.
- A woman dies with a smile. Why?
Answer: It was poison in her lipstick.
- A killer only murders on rainy days. What is his clue?
Answer: No witnesses outside.
- A locked room, two bodies, one gun. What happened?
Answer: Murder-suicide.
- A detective asks a man to guess a number. He guesses right. Why is he arrested?
Answer: He knew the code too well.
- A man has five sons. One is missing. The clue is “I left with five.” Why?
Answer: One was the killer.
- A wallet is found but untouched. Why?
Answer: The thief only wanted identity.
- A robber turns off the lights and steals nothing. Why?
Answer: It was a power prank.
- A cake has poison, yet the person who baked it lives. Why?
Answer: They didn’t eat it.
- A safe is cracked, but the alarm never rings. How?
Answer: It was disarmed.
- A man hears a noise and hides. Why?
Answer: He knew the killer returned.
- A mirror breaks, and the person dies. Why?
Answer: Glass shard hit them.
- A man knows the exact time a crime happened. How?
Answer: He committed it.
- A locked car is empty, yet moved. How?
Answer: It was towed.
- A man wears gloves indoors. Why?
Answer: He doesn’t want to leave fingerprints.
- A girl hides in plain sight but is never found. Why?
Answer: She changed her identity.
- A man is accused but his alibi is solid. What gives him away?
Answer: Security footage shows his reflection.