This classic riddle asks:
“What gets bigger the more you take away?”
At first, it sounds like a contradiction. Usually, when you take something away, what remains gets smaller.
But the trick is to think about something that grows when material is removed from it.
The answer is:
A hole.
The more dirt, sand, or material you remove from a hole, the bigger the hole becomes.
That is what makes this riddle so effective. The wording pushes you toward thinking about ordinary objects, where taking something away means reducing their size. But a hole works in exactly the opposite way.
Remove a little material, and the hole grows. Remove even more, and it becomes larger still.
Answer: A hole.
Simple once you see it — but easy to overthink at first.
Did you get it right before checking the answer?
