The little girl sits at the table, innocently playing with her spoon while watching her mother.
“Mom, while you were at work, a strange lady came into the house.”

Mom, who’s busy putting away groceries, stops suddenly.
“A strange lady? We’ll see when Dad gets home.”

The tone is dry, but the little girl shrugs without being impressed.

A few hours later, Dad arrives. He’d just put down his briefcase when Mom stared at him with her arms crossed, as if ready for battle.

“So, tell Daddy what you told me before,” she asks the little girl.

The little girl jumped up from her chair, excited.
“A lady’s here, Daddy!” She was very pretty and wearing a shiny red dress. She said she’d come to help you find your… documents?”

Dad is paralyzed with shock. His face turns pale and he begins to stammer:
“Uh… documents, you mean?”

This type of riddle relies on a well-known trick: it exploits our automatic mental processes. As soon as we read “1975,” our brain automatically connects this number to a year. It’s normal: we spontaneously associate this type of number with a date. And that’s exactly where we get stuck!

Because in reality, nothing says “1975” as a year. It’s just an interpretation… and everything depends on that.

So, what’s the solution?

The woman was indeed born and died in 1975… but not in the year 1975. She was born in room 1975 of a hospital (or other facility). And she died in that same room in 1975, at the age of 22.

Yes, it’s simple and brilliant.

The puzzle is therefore based solely on the ambiguity of a single number. And it perfectly demonstrates our tendency to want to “interpret everything” linearly, following our usual mental patterns. A beautiful demonstration of what we call lateral thinking!