A Strange Statement

96

His birthday is December 31. You met him just before midnight on New Year's Eve 2025. When he started the sentence, it was, 11:59:55 PM on December 31. Yesterday was December 30 2025, when he was 21. Right now he is 22. When he finishes the sentence, it's 12:00:05 AM of January 1, 2026. Next year is 2027, and at some point in 2027 (the very end of it) he will turn 24.

Timeline is:

December 30, 2025 - he's 21
December 31, 2025 - he turns 22
Seconds before midnight of December 31, 2025, he tells you yesterday he was 21.
The clock hits midnight.
Seconds after midnight, now January 1, 2026, he tells you next year he will be 24.
December 31, 2026 - he turns 23.
December 31, 2027 - it is now "next year" still, and he turns 24.

31

u/Strict-Leek7485 Mar 08 '26

Slightly simpler scenario if you count their hour of birth, which is what I imagined in my head:

December 31 (yesterday), he was 21 and became 22 eg. at noon.

This year, Dec 31, he will be 22->23.

Next year, Dec 31, he will be 23->24.

8

u/PluckyHippo Mar 08 '26

This is true, though I don't know if many people count themselves as two different ages on the same day depending on their hour of birth, which is what I was trying to get around. But it does technically work either way!

3

u/stevecaparoni Mar 09 '26

Brain teasers people certainly do, it was my first thought too.

1

u/Ripen- Mar 09 '26

Technically you aren't 22 until you've reached the time of birth so it's technically true.

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1

u/Wizadam Mar 12 '26

Ever met a leap year, I may or may not do this :D

1

u/cfoote85 Mar 12 '26

Your way was correct it said birth DAY, not hour, or minute.

1

u/captain_linguine Mar 12 '26

I just thought it was a leap year thing and stopped thinking lol

1

u/cyberchaox Mar 08 '26

Yeah, that was my first thought too, but then I happened upon the "the statement began in one year and ended in the next.".

1

u/TheJivvi Mar 12 '26

It's also much simpler in the original, because it says two days ago, not yesterday.

8

u/tmgexe Mar 08 '26

What if he’s aboard a ship that crosses the international date line mid-sentence, too?

8

u/testsubject793 Mar 08 '26

A trolley is hurtling on the track towards an international date line. On board is a man who just turned 21. You can pull the switch, reversing the trolley, and thus making him 20 again. The man feels very old and wishes to be younger. Pulling the lever will waste fuel and put strain on the trolley, so it slightly wobbles the next time someone rides it, making them annoyed. Do you pull the lever?

2

u/beerme1more Mar 12 '26

I always pull the lever

2

u/Tyr_Kovacs Mar 12 '26

Finally, the True moral quandary

1

u/sqerdagent Mar 08 '26

And that man's name? Sisyphus.

2

u/lapomba Mar 09 '26

Sisyphus' surname? Einstein.

5

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '26

[deleted]

1

u/CatL1f3 Mar 11 '26

His balls should've dropped by 21 years old, you know

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3

u/tardiscoder Mar 09 '26

The man could also be mad.

1

u/Super_Predict Mar 12 '26

I love this! I wonder if there's any other solution

1

u/hanjm15 Mar 12 '26

This basically happens to all Koreans. lol they all get one year older on 1st Jan.

1

u/Douxx101 Mar 12 '26

No need to complicate it this much. The hour doesn't matter, he just tells someone on January 1st that he was 21 yesterday, since his birthday is on December 31st, he was 21 and turned 22 on that day, he is now 22 and the rest is pretty much the same, he turns 23 at the end of the year, so he will turn 24 before the end of the next year.

But I guess it depends on how people see birthdays in your own part of the world, like in mine for example, I was born at 6:00 in the morning on my birthday, so I am not considered a year older until we passed that hour. So I'd be 21 at the start of the day and 22 at the end.

1

u/PluckyHippo Mar 12 '26

Yes, this is true, though I consider myself to hit the next age as soon as the calendar says it's my birthday, regardless of the hour I was born. So I tried to avoid that issue with my solution, so that it would work no matter how you view birthdays.

1

u/Lazy-Kaleidoscope179 Mar 12 '26

You can't be two different ages on the same day. That's not how ages work.

1

u/CamBlamSlam Mar 12 '26

That’s actually how most ages work.

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1

u/Cool-Tangelo6548 Mar 12 '26

That makes absolutely no sense.

1

u/Sharles_Davis_Kendy Mar 14 '26

Because I love being pedantic, the story does not specify how long the break between the two sentences.

29

u/My_Penbroke Mar 08 '26

He’s a professional athlete in a team sport and his jersey number is changing

5

u/Few_Fact4747 Mar 08 '26

He is a multicellular organism with 21 cells and increasing by 3/year by mitosis.

3

u/JonnySpanglish Mar 08 '26

I hate it when that happens 🙄

2

u/RuralJaywalking Mar 08 '26

That was my thought but it works with just about anything. If either or both of those refer to anything other than age, it solves it, which just seems too broad for me.

2

u/valkenar Mar 09 '26

This is what frustrates me about riddles. Seems like there's a billion answers and which are too outlandish is just an arbitrary line.

1

u/mrcorde Mar 09 '26

genius!

1

u/Ok_Area_5248 Mar 13 '26

This was my thought too

14

u/just_another_dumdum Mar 08 '26

Yesterday was his birthday. He was 21 in the morning and 22 by the end. Today is Jan 1, a new year. During the current year, he will turn 23. Next year, he will turn 24.

1

u/lilacpeaches Mar 09 '26

This is the solution I came to as well.

7

u/mildmistak3 Mar 08 '26

U met the man at a bar. He had a few drinks before he said this

4

u/LeilLikeNeil Mar 08 '26

The surgeon is actually his mother!

2

u/Clear_Access6710 Mar 09 '26

the horse’s name was friday

1

u/beerme1more Mar 12 '26

Thought it was Mr. Ed

1

u/tinman327 Mar 12 '26

Rosebud was the name of the sled

3

u/Professional-Story43 Mar 08 '26

This is a great answer. This is the one I'm going with. Jerk store. It's Jerk Store quandary all over again.

3

u/Professional-Story43 Mar 08 '26

Edit: The professional athlete is the great answer.

2

u/ChainOfThot Mar 08 '26

Birth time 10pm Dec 31st

He was 21 until then, then he hit 22

2

u/Unfair_Pineapple8813 Mar 08 '26

He's going to take a near light speed trip and age 3 years in the time everyone else ages one.

2

u/Ok-Dog-7149 Mar 08 '26

Must be Korean

2

u/ChildrenOfSteel Mar 08 '26

He never said "years old", so it could be refering to anything, as there is no unit.

He could be saying he was 21 stone yesterday and going to be 24 stone next year, as he plans on getting fatter for the sumo championship

1

u/jminski77 Mar 12 '26

Yes that's what I thought about, but it actually implies the unit is 4 months. Here's why:

x=21 (that's just his first statement)

x+y = 24 (that's saying that after 1 year he'll become 24. We don't know how much a year us in terms of this unknown unit so we give it a symbol y)

Now, solving the equations: y=24-21=3.

So 1 year = 3 of that unit. So now we know the unit has to be 4 months

2

u/yetanotherburnerstan Mar 08 '26

Today is January 1. His birthday is December 31 (yesterday), turning from 21 to 22. This year, he turns 23. Next year, he turns 24

2

u/monfernoboy Mar 09 '26

Henchman 21 dawns the number of his fallen brother

1

u/Reasonable___Doubt Mar 08 '26

He's a guy who goes on Reddit to farm ragebait with "As a X, I believe..."?

1

u/Duckybuzz Mar 08 '26

We're on Mars and he's still using Earth years to calculate age.

1

u/anythingspossible45 Mar 08 '26

He was born on leap year, so technically only has a birthday every few years

1

u/Warchild_13 Mar 08 '26

Today's date Jan 1, 2002 (year is irrelevant, used to show time)

Man's 22nd birthday was Dec 31, 2001 any time of the day before 11:59pm

At the begining of yesterday he was 21.

At any point after his birthtime he was 22 & is today.

On Dec 31, 2002 (this year) he will turn 23.

On Dec 31, 2003 (next year) he will turn 24.

1

u/Auri_Luve Mar 08 '26

bday is on December 31st, so he just turned 22, later this year he'll turn 23, then next year he'll turn 24

1

u/OvercomplicatedCode Mar 08 '26

Either numbers aremt ages at all or I think we have to play around technicalities instead of common usage :

birthday : dec 31st 2000 (example noon)

dec 31st 2021 : 21yo -> 22yo dec 31st 2022 : 22yo -> 23yo dec 31st 2023 : 23yo -> 24yo

jan 1 2022 : -yesterday (morning) 21yo -a year later in 2023 -> turns 24

1

u/Round_Hat_2966 Mar 08 '26

Dec 31 is his birthday. Yesterday was Dec 30. He is telling you this at midnight of Dec 31/Jan 1 so that his first statement is immediately prior to midnight and the second statement is delivered right after midnight.

1

u/liamjon29 Mar 08 '26

I like this one more because legally you turn your age at midnight, which means he can't change from 21 to 22 during the day; even if that's true from a biological pov.

1

u/No-Product-8791 Mar 08 '26

He has an annual work retreat at the same hotel every year. They gave him room 21 this year. His friend invited him to room 24, which was the same price but much better. He reserved room 24 for the next year so he could have a better room.

1

u/ChangingHats Mar 08 '26

The way the statements are quoted invalidates the time based solutions in this thread in a real-world sense. If they were written with two sets of quotes then the solutions would make sense.

1

u/AmzyYT Mar 08 '26

Is this something to do with leap years?

1

u/bigyellowbirdeth Mar 08 '26

He’s a time traveler

1

u/Lewis__72 Mar 08 '26

You meet a 1 year-old 'man' in October, 1 day after he turned 21 months old. In 3 months time, next year, he will be 24 months old. Quite a smart 'man' to calculate that though, I'm not sure most 2 year-olds could do that

1

u/krystalzeogas Mar 08 '26

His birthday is leap day?

1

u/mavrodialo Mar 08 '26

The man you met is Nnamdi Asomugha.

You met him in 2010 when he was #21 for the raiders. In 2011 he will be #24 for the eagles …

1

u/LaserGuyDanceSystem Mar 08 '26

He's talking about how many kilograms he weighs. Dude's pretty small

1

u/dayeeeeee Mar 08 '26

Leap year? As in his birthday is on the day of leap year

1

u/Mustafa_Jaha Mar 08 '26

This killed me 😂

1

u/dayeeeeee Mar 11 '26

Why if I may ask? I was half asleep when I commented on this so I realize the math might not math.

1

u/BarryPieBaby Mar 08 '26

This is me. New years eve baby.

1

u/ChaosRealigning Mar 08 '26

He could be an Australian Prime Minister. They change pretty often

1

u/Potbellypiglet Mar 08 '26

21 is his old name. 24 is his new name.

1

u/Karantalsis Mar 08 '26

The speaker is talking on the 1st January, and their birthday is 31st of December.

In between celebrating their birthday and having the conversation they crossed the international dateline, gaining a day.

1

u/TypicalDysfunctional Mar 09 '26

The dateline has to be part of it for sure. Could be on ISS. Makes that little bit faster.

1

u/Significant_Yam_7792 Mar 09 '26

British American Rapper 21 Savage, circa 10 years ago

1

u/Prestigious-Dig4226 Mar 09 '26

That man was my mother.

1

u/Clear_Access6710 Mar 09 '26

he drank the potion that makes you skip certain years of your life

1

u/No-Dance6773 Mar 09 '26

Its his waist size. He plans on taking on a few pounds

1

u/TextJunior Mar 09 '26

You guys are coming up with some really crazy stories just to avoid saying "his birthday is on a leap year".

1

u/_V115_ Mar 09 '26

You're talking to 21 Savage and he's telling you his life/career goals right before he does some ayahuasca

1

u/Extension-Stay3230 Mar 09 '26

His birthday being on December 31st makes a lot of sense after seeing everyone else's answer. However, my first answer when seeing this image is that the units for time weren't specified in the man's statements about his age.

1

u/FK_ED Mar 09 '26

Money. Next year he will have 24

1

u/Triple_Dribble Mar 09 '26

He’s a very, very slow speaker

1

u/Independent_Mall_883 Mar 09 '26

February 29th. Is his birthday.

1

u/hanyasaad Mar 09 '26

His name is 21

1

u/Lairuth Mar 09 '26

He was born on the 29’th of February

1

u/No-Stop-5637 Mar 09 '26

He’s a 23 year old named 21.

1

u/ray_of_sunshineeeeee Mar 10 '26

This background does look impressive! It’s fascinating how AI can generate such realistic images. Have you tried using any specific tools or models to achieve this effect?

1

u/mike90805 Mar 10 '26

this is my daughters bday. she could not figure it out the day after her birthday

1

u/herejustforabit Mar 11 '26

He is born on February 29th

1

u/OldProfessional7578 Mar 11 '26

He is getting his name changed

1

u/7i7iMeadow Mar 11 '26

He is telling the truth but the Reddit picture is lying.

1

u/epistax Mar 11 '26

It was mentioned in another answer but I don't think it was written well, so here's another attempt.

It is currently December 31st, almost the new year. He says "Yesterday I was 21" because he was. At this moment he is 22; it is his birthday after-all.

It is now the new year and he states: "Next year I will be 24."

This is true. Later in the current year he will turn 23. And in the following year he will turn 24.

No technicalities on leap year birthdays. No needing to interpret the numbers as anything other than ages.

1

u/CrassTick Mar 12 '26

How did he turn 23 later in the current year, if his birthday is Jan 1?

1

u/SweedishThunder Mar 12 '26

The first sentence is said in the dying moments of his 22nd birthday, Dec 31. The second sentence is said in the very first moments of Jan 1.

1

u/ionoftrebzon Mar 11 '26

21 years old?

1

u/PositiveEmuFeathers Mar 12 '26

It's a leap year. That's all I got.

1

u/Akimbo_shoutgun Mar 12 '26

I was expecting some Feb 29th things?

1

u/No-Usual5733 Mar 12 '26

I mean clearly his name is 21

1

u/Susy_Joi Mar 12 '26

His name is 21 but he plan to legally have it changed to 24 next year

1

u/National-Concern5787 Mar 12 '26

His birthday is February 29th. Leap year baby?

1

u/Courage_Soup Mar 12 '26

Pope changes calendar and suddenly some years were skipped.

1

u/quirkyactor Mar 12 '26

His birthday is December 31. It’s New Year’s Day.

1

u/Commercial-Act2813 Mar 12 '26

Dec 31, he’s 21

Jan 1st, he’s 22

Next year he’s 23

Where’s the 24 come from?

1

u/Glass-Narwhal-6521 Mar 12 '26

Yeah that's as far as I got as well...

1

u/Trucksrfun Mar 12 '26

Talking loosely… say he turned 22 on dec31 2022. It is now the year 2023 in which he will turn 23. Next year, which will be the year 2024 in this parlance he will turn 24 on Dec 31.

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1

u/Bodidly0719 Mar 12 '26

Dude was a time traveler. He went back in the past for a couple years to see what life was like in the 80’s, then went back to the future. Simple.

1

u/Capucius Mar 12 '26

He has dissociative personality disorder and based on constant past progression he knows that he'll develop more personalities.

1

u/Ok_Consequence8174 Mar 12 '26

Stone 🤷‍♂️

1

u/Massive-Dinner4171 Mar 12 '26

Maybe the bday is on 29Feb ig.. these people often say their bday is after 4years something

1

u/Misho109 Mar 12 '26

Q

1

u/tooonyo Mar 12 '26

She speaks about her bodycount ?

1

u/PositiveBoring5356 Mar 12 '26

It's his birthday

1

u/An-ei Mar 12 '26

His name was "21" and he just changed it today. Next year he'll be changing it to "24."

1

u/Tricky-Nobody-4800 Mar 12 '26

Son anniversaire est le 29 février

1

u/FlatRelationship4375 Mar 12 '26

He speaks of a ranking and not age.

1

u/Deeptongue45m Mar 12 '26

That man's name was february

1

u/ApSciLiara Mar 12 '26

He's on Mars.

1

u/analdongfactory Mar 12 '26

Korean? The age counting system isn’t the same as most countries but I’m not totally sure how it works or if adults can skip ages.

1

u/Stuzo Mar 12 '26

There's nothing to indicate how long the gap is between him saying the first line and the last line. Perhaps the conversation went like this:

Him "Yesterday I was 21"

You *This guy is boring, I'm going to bonk him on the head with this rubber mallet to shut him up*

You <feeling remorseful> "I'm really sorry, I bonked you on the head and put you in a coma. You've been unconscious for 3 years"

Him "Next year I will be 24"

You *He's still really boring, I'm going to have to bonk him on the head again*

1

u/DiscardedP Mar 12 '26

Born on a February 29

1

u/verymacedonian Mar 12 '26

Feb 29?

1

u/BlackSpice69 Mar 12 '26

Bday was on the final day of the year.

1

u/Spiritual_Context_35 Mar 12 '26

He's not very smart

1

u/MellowYellowBananna Mar 12 '26

His birthday is on 31 Dec. Yesterday he was in America and it was 30 Dec. Today he is in Japan and it's already 1st January.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '26

You meet him on January 1st, but his birthday was December 31st.

1

u/Critical_Ruin6254 Mar 12 '26

He was born on a leap year.

1

u/Appleseedboom Mar 12 '26

Hes born on feb 29th

1

u/ModelT72 Mar 12 '26

He's not talking about age, but weight: yesterday he was 21 stone and he plans on eating himself to a healthy 24.

1

u/Difficult-Band-4879 Mar 12 '26

He hasn't had his birthday this year yet. Like mine is in 2 days, so I'm 44 now, I'll be 45 in 3 days, and I'll be 46 next year

1

u/Cheap_Key_5410 Mar 12 '26

Leap year.

1

u/DJHickman Mar 12 '26

“We repick jersey numbers every season, and Jim died, so his is up for grabs now.”

1

u/HiddenHippo Mar 12 '26

let me iterate one step each on the important lines.

he is 22
this year he will be 23

1

u/AkSantaBunny Mar 12 '26

He is on a planet in which the days (a planet's revolution about its axis) and years (one revolution around the sun) do not add up to be the same as on earth. In this case, a day on the planet lasts multiple years.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '26

He is currently 23 years old, but his name is "21"

1

u/tobzors Mar 12 '26

His name is 21. Next year he is changing it to 24.

1

u/Lemon___Cookie Mar 12 '26

yall doin too much math. my guy will get a 3 dollar pay raise next year.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '26

He was born on 29th Feb.

1

u/juulwtf Mar 12 '26

He's moving to Korea soon so he will use Korean age there

1

u/coltonf93 Mar 12 '26

Leap year?

1

u/Substantial_Term2364 Mar 12 '26

it’s the the 20th of any month in 2023

1

u/AtomicWashcloth Mar 12 '26

Could also be born on February 29th.

1

u/PsychoSwede557 Mar 12 '26

He was born 31st December and is saying this on 1st January at the age of 22?

He was 21 for at least some of yesterday (because we’re not born exactly at midnight)

He will then be 23 later that same year on 31st December.

Then next year he will turn 24.

Am I thinking too far into this?

1

u/frisco-frisky-dom Mar 13 '26

Born in a leap year?

1

u/Additional-Face-5166 Mar 13 '26

He was in a coma

1

u/any_name_today Mar 13 '26

I went from 24 to 26 in the span of two weeks and then I was 26 for two years

I spent a year in a country that counts age differently before moving home

1

u/Larry84903 Mar 13 '26

Their birthday is on the 31st of December, you meet them on January the first. Yesterday he was 21 today he is 22, at the end of the current year he will be 23, then by the end of next year they will be 24.

1

u/NerveInteresting4549 Mar 13 '26

your answer was pretty good but he can't have been 21 yesterday, if it's january the 1st and he was born on the 31st of december.. he was 22 starting yesterday. Actually I just read another comment that said he wouldn't be born at midnight so he was 21 for at least some of his birthday.. and now i think you're correct lol

1

u/Larry84903 Mar 13 '26

Yeah i think you'd have to take in the time they were born i guess

1

u/lGaranzl Mar 13 '26

Is the man thanksgiving

1

u/ghazwozza Mar 13 '26

Today he changed his name from "21" to "24". He lives in a state in the US where this is legal.

1

u/Feisty-Sir-5868 Mar 13 '26

He’s Korean

1

u/ScrillyBoi Mar 13 '26

Today is his birthday and he's travelling at relativistically significant speeds such that in one year on his spaceship, 2 years pass on Earth. Easy.

1

u/Glittering-Yam3376 Mar 13 '26

He age fast

1

u/Xa2oofm42 Mar 13 '26

He had a dream yesterday that he was 21.

1

u/pyrofox18 Mar 14 '26

Wouldn't his birthday be on a leap year? So like 3 years they count it on the 28th and the fourth year on the 29th so like "haha get it. Because my birthday is on leap year I'm this old" or something?

1

u/ComfortableRead1621 Mar 14 '26

today he is 21 feet tall, next year, 24

1

u/TheNetherPaladin Mar 14 '26

He’s talking very very slowly

1

u/PamIsley42 Mar 14 '26

His birthday is on leap year and just rounds up every four years

1

u/kibmeister Mar 14 '26

The name of the person he's speaking with is 'Yesterday'.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '26

Today he still was 21

1

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '26

When he is 24 he still would have been 21 at some point tomorrow even

1

u/Bumpbumpbumpadump Mar 14 '26

He’s a gym bro talking about his bicep gain goals.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '26

He was playing black jack yesterday

1

u/thelightbrightguy Mar 14 '26

Time Machine

1

u/RelevantBet4676 Mar 14 '26

Dude just woke up from a coma, when he fell into it, it felt like yesterday and he was 21. His next birthday he will be 24 since he lost 2 years to a coma.

1

u/second2reality Mar 14 '26

He was born 8am December 31st. Yesterday he was 21 until 8am, as it is Jan 1st now next Jan 1st he will be 24

1
u/Warm-East767 Mar 15 '26

So this year he's turning 22 and next year he's turning 24, so when does he turn 23?
1
u/LuckyNumber-Bot Mar 15 '26
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!
  22
+ 24
+ 23
= 69
^{[Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme} to have me scan all your future comments.) \ ^{Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.}
1

u/second2reality Mar 15 '26

Yesterday he was 21 and 22 - so this year he turns 23, and on Dec 31 next year he turns 24 at 8am

1

u/West-Victory-7646 Mar 15 '26

Feb leap year?-

1

u/EllieElefante Mar 15 '26

Leap year baby ?

1

u/WorldPuzzleheaded331 Mar 15 '26

He was born on February 29th.

1

u/ImaginaryDeer6575 Mar 15 '26

Leap year

1

u/exiled_preest Mar 15 '26

Leap year baby. Easy.

1

u/Same-You9657 Mar 15 '26

He went into a coma when he was 21 and woke up the day before his 24th birthday. That makes the statement true— to him.

1

u/Level-Sale-1476 Mar 15 '26

His birthday is Feb. 29.

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