A woman has three daughters. Each daughter has one brother. How many children does the woman have?
Answer: 4 children.
The three daughters can all share the same brother. The wording does not say that each daughter has a different brother.
So the family consists of three daughters plus one son, giving a total of four children.
This classic riddle works because many people automatically picture three separate brothers and answer six. But the phrase “each daughter has one brother” is perfectly satisfied if all three sisters have the same brother.
The correct answer is therefore 4 children.
