Why would you ever... Return a Pointer or reference..

Ok, so I understand pointers and references, ive used them before plenty of times. Thing is that I just doin't understand the concept of returning a pointer or a reference..

Are you trying to return a dynamic allocated object??? To an awaiting pointer that points to allocated stack memory... Thats the only reason I would think is necessary to return a pointer or reference.

But can anybody explain to me other reasons for returning a pointer or reference.