If you like the Friday Puzzles, there is now a page containing 101 of them here.
OK, on Friday I posted these three riddles….
1) When I’m going, it doesn’t mean I’m moving, I can stop even though I don’t go anywhere, and I don’t have any arm but I do have hands. What am I?
2) He who makes me sells me, he who buys me does not use me, and he who does use me isn’t aware of it. What am I?
3) I begin with an E, I end with an E and I only contain one letter, but I am not the letter E.
If you have not tried to solve them, have a go now. For everyone else, the answers are after the break.
1) A clock
2) A coffin
3) An envelope
Did you solve them? Any other answers?
Richard Wiseman 
Nice puzzle. Had “epistle” for 3, and didn’t look any further.
I recognized the first two immediately as variants of ones I had seen, had to cheat and use Google for the third (head-slap moment when I found it, another I had seen before in a slightly different form).
–Dave
Number 2 arguably reflects past times more than present ones. Plenty of people pre-pay for their own funerals and choose the coffin in advance, not to mention coffins that can be used as furniture while you’re alive, the possibility of making your own, etc.
Coffins that can be used as furniture?!?!
Takes all kinds
Personally I want to be cremated in as inexpensive a manner as possible. I hope my family can even forgo the box (what a shame, to buy a box just to burn it…)
Ashes to be scattered over the ocean with a bit held back to be scattered on Main Street in DisneyWorld!
I got them all, but thought that the third one could also be ‘eye’.
The third one could be “EYE” too
Presumably being an ‘I’ as the one letter?
In a similar vein, I thought ewe.
I did not get it.
I still do not get the first one; why does a clock have hands? (I’m not English)
With the second one I thought of a landmine, but was not satisfied.
hands on a clock are the long things (only on an analogue clock) that point to the hour, minute and second
clocks have faces , hands and some have feet all are filled with gubbins 🙂
Hm Landmines are unsatifying…. (as the one that dies by one usually does not “use” it)…..
After a few thoughts i think roads, traffic signs and traffic lights…. also fit as an answer for the second question… especcially as the one who makes them is a different one than the one who pays for them (i.e. the state) and i expect noone is actually aware of using streets, signs, traffic lights and so on…
Otherwise a cinerary urn would also fit as an answer to the second question…
@ Berhard:
Regarding the traffic signs, roads etc. being bought by the state:
that’s actually tax money, isn’t it? At least here in Germany, car owners have to pay taxes, and those taxes are used to build the roads.
So, this would rule out “he who buys me does not use me” condition, would you agree…?
Discounted ‘clock’ for the first answer, as a clock with arms that is ‘going’ does ‘move’ (not the whole thing, but the arms do: if I move my arms you would say I was moving). No joy on the second one and had ‘eye’ for the third. Can I have half marks?
I meant ‘hands’ not ‘arms’, before the pedants descend!
How could the third one be eye? It has three letters and doesn’t contain a letter in any other form as envelope does… Correct me if I’m wrong though!M, in English the two rotating arms on an analogue clock that point to the hour and minute are called hands.I got one and three straight away but got nowhere with two!
I was in exactly the same boat. Couldn’t get no. 2 but got 1 and 3 almost immediately. Maybe I didn’t want to get no. 2 the end of last year was not good…
It contains the letter “I”, in the sense that it’s pronounced that way. It’s a bit of a stretch though, and even though I came up with that answer first, I agree that “envelope” is a better answer.
I got 1 and 3 straight away but couldn’t get 2.
Ditto. Was kicking myself when I read the answer.
for the third one I thought –
“I” — the alphabet I. which when spoken sounds like “eye”.
I got 1&3 but said nappy for 2 – only works for the younger nappy users though.
and some of the older ones too (no not me!)
I got #1 and #3. Not sure I agree with the wording of #2: “use” implies action, but the occupant of a coffin is not active in any sense, so I would never say it is “using” the coffin.
#2 is open to several possible interpretations involving middle men – like someone who serves tea (bags) in a cafe
I got one and two but I had no idea about three =D best I’ve done in a Friday puzzle in a long time! =D
Like a lot of others I got 1 & 3, and was stumped by number 2. Quite happy with that as it means the brain is still working (vaguely)!
I got 2 and 3 and now after seeing the answer for 1, I feel foolish for not getting that. It is so terribly obvious after seeing the answer.
I thought you would get more arguing over moving hands and who exactly is the user of a coffin. If the occupant is the user, it is very possible he was the buyer,; if the family or friends of the deceased are the users, they are certainly aware it is being used.
I thought the answer for 3 was the letter “I,” which is pronounced “eye.”
I thought 2 was poison. I’ve heard the coffin one before but I couldn’t remember, although I knew it had something To do with death.
Coffin! Of course! Got the other two in a couple of seconds apiece… but I couldn’t get coffin, even though I had seen that puzzle somewhere before, when I was a kid, I think.
I got 1 and 3 but couldn’t quite make the jump on 2. I like the alternative answer of eye for number 3 though.
I agree with the comments above that with society changing the second has become a little bit harder to work out. I know a number of people who had repaid for their funerals
Why can’t an envelope contain two (or more) letters?
Or none, I have a stack of envelopes here, none of them contain any letters 😛 I would have also thought the vast majority of people who make coffins don’t sell them either, the people who actually make them would be paid labour / machine operators and unlikely to be the people doing the selling in most cases.
1 and 3 immediately – couldn’t get 2 even though I have been on a wicker coffin making workshop (I might need minced to fit in though)
Hmm…
Good because I got all three riddles right?
Or bad because I remember 1st hearing them almost 50 years ago in grade school?
Or good because I still remember 50 years ago?
Eye seemed like a possible answer for 3, because y is contained between the two e’s. The e’s, being at the ends, aren’t contained.
Got watch for 1, which I’m going to call a success. I was thinking about hospital equipment for premature babies for 2 (for some reason) and got nowhere at all with 3.
“Eye” for three?
Nice. I had ‘eye’ for number 3.
Amazing ones
A coffin