Five-sister riddles, like the classic “brothers and sisters I have none” puzzle, look innocent at first glance but hide their answer in plain sight.
This one is short, domestic, and almost too ordinary: reading, cooking, chess, laundry… and yet, most people still miss the obvious link the first time they hear it.
Let’s walk through the “Five Sisters Are Busy” riddle the same way you might explain it to a friend after they’ve guessed everything except the right answer.
The Riddle: Question
The “Five Sisters Are Busy” riddle usually appears like this:
“All 5 sisters are busy. Ann is reading, Rose is cooking, Katie is playing chess, and Mary is doing laundry. What is the fifth sister doing?”
On the surface, it feels like a simple memory test: four sisters, four activities, and one missing detail. A lot of people immediately start inventing chores:
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“Maybe she’s watching TV?”
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“Maybe she’s sleeping?”
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“Maybe she’s on the phone?”
The trick is that the riddle already gives you everything you need. There are no hidden characters, no time jumps, no secret clues. The answer is hiding inside the sentence about Katie.
Just like the “brothers and sisters I have none” riddle, this one is less about maths and more about paying attention to relationships and context.
The Riddle: Answer
The answer to the “Five Sisters Are Busy” riddle is:
- The fifth sister is playing chess with Katie.
Once you see it, it feels almost too obvious. Chess, unlike reading or cooking, usually needs two people. If Katie is playing chess, she must be playing with someone, and the riddle has locked all five sisters inside the same little scene.
So the missing activity is not something random like “scrolling Instagram” or “watering plants”; it’s directly linked to Katie’s line.
In one of those classic riddle moments, most people groan, laugh, or say “Oh, of course” when they hear the answer, not because it was impossible, but because their brain jumped to the wrong type of thinking.
Step-by-Step Explanation
Let’s decode it slowly, the way you might if this popped up in an exam or reasoning test.
The riddle says:
- All 5 sisters are busy.
- Ann is reading.
- Rose is cooking.
- Katie is playing chess.
- Mary is doing laundry.
- One sister’s activity is missing.
Now notice a few key points:
- “All 5 sisters are busy”
- This line tells you everyone is doing something. There is no idle sister, no outsider, no one off-screen.
- Four out of five activities are given
- Ann → reading
- Rose → cooking
- Katie → playing chess
- Mary → doing laundry
So the fifth sister must also be engaged in an activity that fits naturally into this list.
- Chess is the odd one out
- Reading, cooking, and laundry are all naturally solo activities. You can do them alone without needing anyone else in the scene.
- Chess, however, is usually a two-player game. Yes, you can technically play against a computer or solve puzzles alone, but the default mental image is: two people, one board.
- Who can be Katie’s opponent?
- The riddle limits the “cast” to the five sisters. There’s no suggestion of strangers, parents, or friends.
- If Katie is playing chess, and all five sisters are busy, the simplest and most logical answer is that another sister is her opponent.
That missing sister fills the only remaining natural slot: she’s also at the chessboard.
So we join the dots:
- Katie is playing chess.
- Chess needs (at least) two players.
- The only unnamed, busy person left is the fifth sister.
- Therefore, the fifth sister is playing chess with Katie.
Why This Riddle Works So Well
This kind of riddle shows up again and again in aptitude tests, reasoning sections, and puzzle books because it quietly checks a few important skills:
- Reading carefully instead of rushing
- Many people skim it, treat it like a “guess the missing chore” question, and start throwing out random household tasks. The puzzle rewards the person who slows down and notices the special case: chess.
- Using real-world knowledge
- It doesn’t tell you “chess is a two-player game.” You’re expected to bring that understanding from your own experience. Riddles often lean on this kind of everyday logic.
- Connecting clues, not inventing new ones
- Everything you need is already given. The challenge is to link Katie’s activity to the missing one, not to create a completely new scenario.
If you’ve ever sat in a classroom or coaching centre and watched this riddle go around, you’ll know the pattern: one part of the group gets it instantly and starts smiling, another group keeps guessing random tasks, and someone finally blurts out, “Wait, she must be playing chess too!” That shared “ohhhh” is exactly the charm of these simple logic puzzles.
How to Use This Riddle for Practice
If you’re practising logical reasoning or blood relation / daily-life puzzles for exams, this riddle is a good reminder to:
- Read every verb and noun carefully — “playing chess” is not the same kind of activity as “reading”.
- Ask yourself: does any action in the sentence depend on another person?
- Before inventing new details (“maybe there’s someone else there”), first exhaust all possibilities using only the information given.
You can even tweak the riddle to train your brain further:
- Change the activity: “Katie is playing carrom / badminton / cards” — still needs someone.
- Change the setting: “Four friends are busy in the park…” and see if the same logic applies.
These tiny tweaks help you see the underlying pattern, not just the one memorised answer.
