Riddle:
A man walks in a hardware store and asks “How much are those?” the clerk says “three for a dollar.” The man takes one hundred, pays a dollar and walks out. What did he buy?
The Informant was a nineteen year old female friend that I had dinner with. I told her about the catch riddle we learned in class (what do virgins eat?) and she began telling me all of these riddles that she knew.
Collector: Wait, he bought one hundred of them for a dollar when only three are for a dollar? That makes no sense.
Informant: That’s why it’s a riddle, duh, but it does have an answer – in case you were wondering.
Collector: Did the man steal 97 items?
Informant: Nope. He paid for everything just fine and walked out.
(After several minutes of guessing and failing, she gave a pivotal hint)
Informant: You find these on the front of a house, and every house has this.
Answer via Informant: It’s the address on the house, the address is one hundred. Get it? One hundred has three numbers, three for a dollar? He bought a one and two zeros – for a dollar. Get it? He literally bought “100”. Three digits.
Collector: Did your high school friend tell you this one too?
Informant: Yup.
This riddle wasn’t quite as exclusionary as other riddles that require the person to understand certain references. This one was pretty straight forward with objects that everyone is familiar with .