The Answer to the Most Famous Unanswerable Riddle

Esther Inglis-Arkell 

January 5, 2012

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

This riddle first appeared in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Alice ends up at a tea party with the Mad Hatter and the March Hare. The Mad Hatter asks her the now famous question, Why is a raven like a writing desk? Alice asks him why, and he admits he doesn't know. He was just asking. Alice chides him with, "I think you might do something better with the time than wasting it in asking riddles that have no answers."*

The unanswered riddle, which many people were exposed to in their formative years, got under people's skin. In fact, many people have come up with answers over the years, but none is considered definitive. The most commonly accepted answer was given by Sam Lloyd, a brilliant American puzzle pioneer:

"Poe wrote on both." People have persisted in coming up with their own answers to the heavily-pondered riddle. I'll take my own shot at it. "Why is a raven like a writing desk? Because neither is approached without caws."

[The author invited readers to submit their answers. MisterGone wrote:

A writing desk is a rest for pens and a raven is a pest for wrens.]

 

*Lewis Carroll was a mathematician. Alice's comment was a swipe at what Carroll considered the nonsensical logic that was piling up in his chosen field.