This classic word riddle has been completely stumping people online! It looks like a straightforward math problem at first glance, but it is actually a clever test of how carefully you read.
The riddle asks: “A farmer has 18 sheep. All but 7 run away. How many are left?”
What makes this puzzle so tricky is that our brains are trained to spot numbers and immediately do the math. When you see the numbers 18 and 7, the natural instinct is to subtract 7 from 18. This leads many people to confidently guess 11, which is by far the most common wrong answer!
However, the real clue is found in the phrasing “all but 7.” If all of the sheep ran away except for 7 of them, that phrasing tells you exactly how many stayed behind. You do not actually need to do any subtraction at all to find the solution.
Answer: 7.
