Tricky riddle leaves people confused as only certain hobbyists can solve it

A fiendishly difficult riddle has left people scratching their heads as they struggle to work out the answer - but it can be solved easily by those with a certain hobby

Maintaining your mental agility is as crucial as keeping your body in shape. One of the best methods for giving your brain a good workout is by pushing your abilities to their limits with tricky brainteasers and other mental games that help you think outside the box.

Engaging with a fiendishly tough puzzle not only triggers a dopamine surge that leaves you feeling good when you finally crack it, but such challenges can enhance your problem-solving prowess, sharpen cognitive functions, and even fend off degenerative conditions like dementia. If you fancy giving your neurons a bit of exercise today, then why not have a crack at this brain-teaser?

However, be prepared for a bit of a struggle with this conundrum unless you're quite the aficionado in a specific hobby.

The team behind the Lateral with Tom Scott podcast posted this head-scratcher on TikTok. In the video, Ali Spagnola poses a perplexing query while podcast host Tom Scott and his guests Katelyn and Evan Heling grapple with an answer.

Ali posed the question: "Sarah is spending a relaxing evening at home. After a while, she sighs, and decides she needs to tink. After tinking for a while, she sighs again and decides she needs to frog. What is causing her to tink and frog?"

To the uninitiated, these terms might seem nonsensical, and indeed, the riddle had Tom, Katelyn, and Evan scratching their heads for quite some time before they could unravel it.

Katelyn quickly inferred that "tinking" must be a repetitive or time-consuming task, as the riddle suggests Sarah engages in this activity "for a while". She also rightly concluded that since Sarah "sighs" before each undertaking, it's unlikely to be something she enjoys doing or wants to do.

The team initially thought the terms might be acronyms, but that theory was quickly dismissed. They also toyed with the idea of a code, where one word substitutes for another, which wasn't entirely incorrect, though not quite right either.

Ali eventually offered some clues, indicating that Sarah is "trying to undo some mistakes" through her actions, hence the sighing. She also hinted that the term "tink" itself contains a clue.

Are you still puzzling over it? We're about to reveal the answer, so hold off on scrolling if you're still figuring it out.

Answer

The mystery is that Sarah was knitting.

Those familiar with knitting may recognise "tink", which is "knit" spelt backwards and refers to reversing knitting to correct errors in the pattern. Similarly, "frog" is a knitting term used for unravelling multiple rows of stitches.

Ali clarified to the group: "Tink is to go backwards to the place where you made the mistake, so knit backwards. Frog is to unravel several rows of stitches. If you realise that the mistake happened much earlier, the name is a pun on 'rip it, rip it, rip it'. Unravel it, rip it back, mimicking the ribbit noise that a frog makes."

Did you manage to crack it? Share your thoughts in the comments!