This riddle asks: what can you hold without ever using your hands? The clue sounds impossible if you only think about physical objects, but the key is to remember that the word “hold” has more than one meaning.
The answer is your breath. You can hold your breath for a short time simply by stopping yourself from breathing in or out. No hands are involved at all.
That is what makes the riddle clever. It uses an everyday phrase in a way that feels obvious only after you see the answer. Many riddles work exactly like this by taking a common word such as hold and applying a different meaning than the one you first expect.
