"Penny has five children" is a riddle about a lady and her penchant for giving her kids some rather unusual names. You know the first four, but can you guess the fifth?
Riddles are meant to confound—but in a way that’s meant to be clever and fun. In other words, if math riddles were, say, merely confounding, they wouldn’t hit home so much as feel like homework. Even the easy ones might seem unduly challenging if it weren’t for a carefully calibrated element of “gotcha.” And that’s exactly why the “Penny has five children” riddle has gained so much traction on the internet.
When you first encounter the “Penny has five children” riddle, you might think the answer is obvious. At the same time, you’ll wonder how it could be so obvious and still be a riddle. All will be revealed, of course, when you learn the solution. And when you do, you’re going to want to share it with everyone because their reactions will be priceless.
So when you’re ready, scroll on and take a stab at the “Penny has five children” riddle to test your smarts.
Get Reader’s Digest’s Read Up newsletter for more riddles, humor, cleaning, travel, tech and fun facts all week long.
The “Penny has 5 children” riddle
Here goes the riddle: Penny has five children. The name of Penny’s first child is January. The second is called February. Penny’s third child answers to the name March. The fourth one’s name is April. What is the name of Penny’s fifth child.
At the risk of giving away the solution to this short riddle, the best hint we can offer is that everything you need to solve this riddle can be found within the riddle itself.
The “Penny has 5 children” answer
If you assumed Penny’s fifth child is called May, that is perfectly understandable. But also incorrect.
The solution to the “Penny has five children” riddle is … What. That’s right, like the second-baser in the famous Abbott and Costello Who’s on First sketch, child No. 5 goes by “What.”
The explanation
Like many of these classic head-scratchers from history, the “Penny has five children” riddle does not pose a question. After all, it consists of six statements: The first is that Penny has five children. The next five reveal the names of Penny’s five children, one by one.
Despite the lack of question, that series of statements courts a response.
The trick behind solving the riddle
The reason why the “Penny has five children” riddle tricks so many people is that evolution has favored the human brain’s inherent desire to process information by forming patterns. That’s why, when we look up at the night sky, we’re able to see familiar shapes. According to a study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, our inclination to detect a pattern—even where none may exist—is the very essence of the highly evolved human brain. And that’s exactly what’s happening in the “Penny has five children” riddle.
When your highly evolved human mind registers that the first four of Penny’s children are named after the first four months in the calendar (in order), it’s logical to assume that the fifth child’s name follows the same pattern and is, therefore, May. But the riddle states in clear and unequivocal language that What is the name of Penny’s fifth child. The lack of a question mark at the end is a big clue.
Sure, What may not be the most popular baby name in your state, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be the name of Penny’s fifth child.
Other versions of the “Penny has 5 children” riddle
Like the “green glass door” riddle, which has been vexing the internet for quite some time now, the “Penny has five children” riddle comes in more than one flavor. Here are the two most popular variations and their respective solutions:
With a question at the end
One version is meant to address the absence of a discernible question in the original by ending with the question: “What is the name of Penny’s fifth child?” The trick here is that the question uses what as a noun, the way someone might when casually asking a friend, “We’re getting tacos?” It’s not grammatically correct, but that just makes the riddle tougher to solve. In short, the question mark is a red herring.
In this version, the answer is “yes,” although “true” would suffice. Even “what” would be an acceptable response—but never “May.”
With a different mother
The second version is designed to trip up those who are already familiar with the original version of the “Penny has five children” riddle. It does so by presenting a similar scenario, albeit one that has been transformed by a subtle yet significant tweak.
This version’s first statement is not that Penny has five children but rather that Penny’s mother has five children. In this version, which ends with the question “What is the fifth one’s name?” the answer is “Penny.”
If there’s anything the “Penny has five children” riddle teaches us, it’s this: Sometimes, solving a riddle is just like solving life’s little puzzles—it requires stepping back, thinking it through calmly and letting the answer reveal itself.
Why trust us
Reader’s Digest is known for our humor and brain games, including quizzes, puzzles, riddles, word games, trivia, math, pattern and logic puzzles, guessing games, crosswords, rebus, hidden objects and spot-the-difference challenges. We’ve earned prestigious ASME awards for our entertainment content and have produced dozens of brainteaser books, including Word Searches, Word Power, Use Your Words, Fun Puzzles and Brain Ticklers, Mind Stretchers, Ultimate Christmas Puzzles and more. Our 10 published volumes of Mind Stretchers were edited by Allen D. Bragdon, founder of The Brainwaves Center and editor of Games magazine. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
Sources:
- Frontiers in Neuroscience: “Superior pattern processing is the essence of the evolved human brain”
- Psychology Today: “Are you seeing patterns that don’t exist?”
