This short riddle asks: what can be tied but never untied?
A common intended answer is a game that ends in a tie.
Two teams or players can finish a game with the same score, which means the game is tied. Once the game is over and officially recorded as a tie, you do not literally “untie” it the way you would untie a knot or shoelace.
The wordplay comes from using the word “tied” in two different senses. One meaning involves knots, while the other describes an equal score.
The riddle encourages you to think about rope or string first, but the answer comes from the language of sports and competition instead.
