What Has to Be Broken Before You Can Use It?

Why people hesitate

The word "broken" usually suggests something damaged or lost. Most things are no use once they are broken, so the question sounds like a contradiction. An egg is different: the shell has to crack before you can cook or bake with what is inside.

The riddle works because "use" and "broken" rarely sit together. Once the listener thinks of breakfast, the answer shows up.

Humpty Dumpty, a riddle with the same answer

The nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty" appears in The Nursery Rhymes of England (1886 printing) in the section of riddles. The book prints it as a riddle: "Humpty Dumpty sate on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; Three score men and three score more cannot place Humpty Dumpty as he was before." The answer given there is an egg.

The two riddles point at the same object from opposite sides. One shows an egg that must be broken to be used, and the other shows an egg that cannot be put back together once broken.

Short forms

• What has to be broken before you can use it?
• What must you break before you can use it?
• You have to break me before I am useful. What am I?