Riddle That ‘Doesn’t Make Sense’ Stumps Internet, but Can You Work It Out?

Riddles are a great way to test the brain, but one has left thousands of people baffled after the answer didn’t seem to add up.

The riddle was part of a set of cards that Rose, who lives in the U.K., got as a birthday gift. While it seemed straightforward enough, the answer on the card sparked a wave of confusion.

The enigma in question reads: “If you were to write down all the numbers from 0 to 75 inclusive, how many times would you write the number 5?” Rose said the card declared the answer to be 9, but she and her family were convinced that the correct count was 18.

Seeking clarification, Rose turned to the online community, posting the riddle on Reddit’s r/mildlyinteresting subreddit where it has gained viral attention. With more than 36,000 upvotes and over 7,000 comments, internet users struggled to decipher the reasoning behind the seemingly baffling answer.

“The riddle is actually from a little box of riddles I got from my dad and stepmom for my birthday, so I’m not entirely sure where it’s from,” Rose told Newsweek. “I was actually very confused as to why the answer they gave was only 9, when I thought it was clear that the answer was 18.” Rose’s family—and the internet—agreed, and were completely confused about why the card would be completed with the incorrect answer.

One Reddit user even questioned the inclusion of the card at all and commented: “Not really a riddle either, though, is it?”

The card asks how many times the number 5 would be written if all the numbers from 0 to 75 inclusive were written down. The correct answer is that the number 5 would be written 18 times. This includes the numbers 5, 15, 25, 35, 45, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 65, and 75, which contain the digit 5. Therefore, the number 5 would be written 18 times in the given range, with two 5s in 55.

This isn’t the first time a riddle has interested the internet, like the seemingly “unsolvable” math puzzle found stuck to a tree, or the smashed glass shards that didn’t fit back together.

Most of all, Rose was amazed that the post had gained so much attention online. She said: “This is the biggest reaction to a post I’ve made on Reddit, so it was really strange to see all the comments and upvotes rolling in.

“It seemed as though every few seconds there was another person giving me their interpretation of the question, and also really interesting to see everyone’s different perspectives on it,” Rose added.