What Gets Wetter the More It Dries?

What the question is really asking

The riddle leans on the word "dries". People picture a towel as the dry thing in the bathroom, so an answer that gets wetter feels backward. A towel dries by taking water from something else, so every hand, dish or wet dog it dries moves a little water into the towel. The more work it does, the wetter it gets.

That is the whole trick: the question asks about the thing doing the drying, while the mind goes looking for the thing being dried.

Ways people say it

The wording shifts from household to household. The answer stays the same.

• What gets wetter the more it dries?
• What gets wetter as it dries?
• What dries things but gets wet doing it?
• The more I dry, the wetter I get. What am I?

Some versions say bath towel, dish towel or tea towel, and any of them counts as correct.

A good first riddle

The towel riddle is short, uses a word every child knows and gives the answer a clear reason. It works well as the first riddle in a session, since it teaches the pattern of the whole game: the answer was visible from the start.