The Flying Dutchman and Other Folktales from the Netherlands

Copyright © 2008 by Theo Meder

A pit is twenty metres deep and completely empty. At the bottom of the pit is a snail. By day, the snail manages to climb up five metres. By night, however, he slides down four metres again. So in a twenty-four-hour period, he actually climbs one metre. How many days will it take the snail to climb out of the pit?

Solution: It will take the snail sixteen days. After climbing for fifteen days, he will have reached the level of fifteen metres. In the daytime next day, he will climb the remaining five metres; he won't slide down anymore, because now he has already left the pit.

This riddle was told to me on January 9, 2000, by the young Moroccan storyteller Mohamed Remadan in Utrecht (Province of Utrecht). The translation is based on Theo Meder and Marie van Dijk, Doe open Zimzim (Amsterdam, 2000), pp. 61-63.