A little girl sits at the table, innocently playing with her spoon, watching her mother.
"Mom, while you were at work, a strange woman came into the house."
The mother, who is busy putting away the groceries, suddenly stops.
"A strange woman? We'll see when Dad gets home."
The tone is dry, but the little girl shrugs her shoulders indifferently.
A few hours later, Dad arrives. He had just put down his briefcase when Mom stared at him, arms folded, as if ready for a fight.
"Well, tell Daddy what you told me earlier," he asks the little girl.
The little girl jumped up from her chair excitedly.
"The woman has arrived, Daddy!" She was very beautiful and was wearing a shiny red dress. He said he would come to help you find... your documents?"
The father is paralyzed with shock. His face turns pale and he starts to stammer:
"Um... documents, you mean?"
This type of riddle is based on a well-known trick: it exploits our automatic thought processes. As soon as we read "1975", our brain automatically associates this number with a year. It's normal: we spontaneously associate this type of number with a date. And that's where we get stuck!
Because in reality, nothing says "1975" as a year. It's just an interpretation... and everything depends on it.
So what's the solution?
The woman was indeed born and died in 1975... but not in 1975. She was born in a hospital (or other institution) room in 1975. And she died in the same room in 1975, at the age of 22.
Yes, it's simple and ingenious.
So the riddle is based on exclusively to the ambiguity of the number. And it perfectly demonstrates our tendency to want to "interpret everything" linearly, following our usual ways of thinking. A beautiful demonstration of what we call lateral thinking!
