Confusing riddle about a woman on a boat has two correct answers — but only a genius can solve both

A new riddle has taken the internet by storm, leaving folks guessing for the best part of the day. Some truly loved the mental exercise, but others found themselves deeply frustrated. If you enjoy solving challenging riddles, you are going to love this one. The riddle is called, "There is a woman in a boat."

As reported by Reader's Digest, it goes, "There is a woman in a boat, on a lake, wearing a coat. If you want to know her name, it’s in the riddle I just wrote. What is her name?" At first, it may seem like just a simple rhyme, but it's trickier than most would have guessed as they completely missed the point.

On X (formerly Twitter) a person commented, “Is it Anna Lake? I have seen this before but never spent much time or looked into it, but it seems nonsense otherwise.” Another penned, “No. It is just a written riddle, and it only works in written words, not in spoken words. He also says, ‘the riddle I wrote.’ ‘Wrote,’ not ‘told’ nor ‘said.’ So, the key is in the riddle: you have to write it to understand it. The letters are all there and in the proper order. Take the apostrophe as a ‘poetic license.’ Kinda.” Chiming in, a person argued, “It's not a riddle. A riddle requires answering a question. There is no question in his statement. I don't care what her name is.” Meanwhile, one joked, "Who gives a toss...She is obviously enjoying herself."

Another guessed, “It’s one of those riddles that doesn’t work verbally. When it’s written down, the solution stares at you until you get it. Theresa.” Alright, we will finally put you out of your suspense—though the answer was right there the whole time. If you take a moment to revisit the riddle, you will notice the author’s clever use of punctuation, which was key to unlocking the solution. Read through it slowly, and the answer will be clear. It’s a short riddle, so try breaking it down into smaller pieces. Pay close attention to the very first sentence. The woman’s name could easily be swapped for yours or your best friend’s.

The reason it may have taken so long for you to arrive at the right answer is because of the odd choice of name. So, the woman's name is 'There.' It never required complex logic or linguistic knowledge to begin with. Additionally, the lack of a question mark at the end of the final sentence also made things confusing, suggesting the namcould also 'What.' However, it was simply there just to throw us off. So, how long did it take you to figure it out? Or did you just simply scroll down?