A Riddle That Can Make Anyone Lose Sleep: Who Gets Coffee First?

6 years ago

A good riddle can outwit even the best of us at times, like any good game or puzzle. For anyone in need of their daily cup of Joe, one new riddle is stumping people on social media.

We at Bright Side love a good riddle so we’re sharing this one with our readers. Don’t forget to read on, we’ll give you the answer... but not before going into some funny wrong answers.

First things first, look at the illustration. There are 4 cups, each labeled with a number. Coffee is being poured into tubes hovering over the 4 cups. Which of the cups will get the coffee first?

The first 2 cups have less tubing than the second 2, so you are probably tempted to think that the order is 4, 9, 7 and 5. Unfortunately, that’s not the right answer.

Riddles like this usually require some out-of-the-box thinking. You might be tempted to think the answer would be that all the cups would get the coffee at the same time. Close, but that’s not the right answer either.

You might also assume that maybe there’s not enough coffee, meaning that some, if not all, of the cups could end up not getting coffee at all. You’re getting warmer, but let’s just say you’re overthinking things. We never said how much coffee is in the pot or if we have a back-up pot for such an occasion, but just assume we do.

Don’t worry, we’re going to give you the answer... but before that...

Bonus: Have another riddle!

A man walked into his regular diner. A new waitress is assigned to serve him and he asks for a simple cup of coffee. She brings him his order and he notices that there is a fly in the drink. He calls the waitress back and asks for a new cup. She goes back into the kitchen, on the opposite side of the building, and returns with a hot cup of coffee. After a while, the man calls her back and complains that it’s just the same cup of coffee, with the fly taken out.

How did the man know that the waitress just took out the fly? Here’s a hint, the cup was still hot and the coffee machine was on the opposite side of the building... out of the man’s sight, so he couldn’t have just seen what the waitress did or tell by temperature.

And here’s the answer for the bonus: If the man had already put sugar in his coffee, it would still taste sweet. If the waitress really replaced the cup, the fresh coffee shouldn’t be sweet.

Are you ready for the answer?

It’s not complicated. Just take a close look at the picture. The answer is 5... and that’s it. All the other cups wouldn’t get anything because the tubes leading to them are blocked off at some point. You see, even though the riddle asked for the cups in order, that didn’t mean more than one cup was going to get anything.