The answer to the riddle is six. This is because the riddle cleverly uses both present and past tense to create ambiguity. Initially, it mentions that you have six eggs, which indicates a present situation. However, as the riddle progresses, it describes actions in the past tense such as breaking, cooking, and eating the eggs. This duality of tenses adds complexity to the riddle and ultimately leads to the conclusion that there are six eggs.

The 6 eggs riddle pops up every so often, going relatively viral, especially when public figures discover and share the riddle. This happened when American Rap artist Kevin Gates tweeted the riddle:


Interestingly, searches for the riddle saw spikes in April 2004 and April 2020. It’s hard to say what this means in 2004, but it’s safe to assume a social media post went viral in 2020, causing a flurry of Internet riddlers. The majority of interest has originated from Trinidad & Tobago – do you have any idea why that might be? If so, please leave a quick comment below.