Riddle (I have no answer)

In My Humble Opinion
1

“One man has six of them, two men have 8.
If women have them, they are halved.
If children use them, they have 18.
I have none, but you have several.
They are red at day and black at night.”

This riddle is found here http://wrexen.livejournal.com/233844.html

And here http://judasen.livejournal.com/19375.html

And here http://der-huhn-teufel.livejournal.com/153658.html

With no answer — And forget it, the answer isn’t on the Net as far as I can tell.
Is this an internet riddle hoax - with no answer? Or does someone here have a reasonable answer?

2

But amount of views and no replies, it appears that no one else has an answer, either, so don’t feel bad. :slight_smile:

I have the impression from the way that the riddle is worded (“one man” has six, “I” have none) that maybe they are talking about the way the words themselves are composed, but if so, it’s kind of written poorly, because of the “have” modifiers on you and two men. “If children” could be another phrase, but I don’t know what “if children” has 18 of.

My first thought when I read it was “anagrams”, but I have no idea if that’s true or not. I can’t think of several anagrams for “you”.

And the last line is really throwing me.

3

Letters are “read” during the day, and “black” at night because everything is black in the dark.

micilin and I were discussing this earlier. He suggested numbers of letters - “one man” => 6 as suggested.

Woman + woman = 10, but women = 5 (half)

I have none (I is 1 in Roman numerals so no letters) but you have several (3 is several).

We fall down on the children and two men.

Then again, there’s no citation so it could be a) bullshit made to look archaic, or b) a misremembering, as in the “gry” question.

Bloody annoying, is what it actually is.

4

Maybe it is a riddle translated from another language.

5

I’m thinking along the lines of pronouns, but not too sure if this is working out.