This riddle asks: What gets longer the more you cut it? At first, that sounds impossible because cutting usually makes something shorter. The trick is to think about something that becomes longer as you keep cutting into the ground.
The answer is a ditch.
When you cut or dig a ditch, each additional section you cut makes the ditch extend farther. So even though you are “cutting,” the result keeps getting longer. That reversal is what makes the riddle work.
Many people first think of hair, rope, or paper because those are familiar things we cut. But those become shorter, not longer. A ditch fits the wording because the act of cutting into the earth creates more length. It is a simple but clever example of a riddle that depends on using a word in a less obvious way.
