I discovered this intriguing riddle and was compelled to try to solve it when it was prefaced with the challenge that only 2% of the population can solve it. The 2% statistic probably has no scientific basis and the riddle is really more a logical puzzle than a riddle. However, I was up for the challenge!
The Riddle / Puzzle
In a street, there are 5 houses, painted 5 different colours. In each house lives a person of a different nationality. These 5 homeowners each drink a different kind of beverage, smoke a different brand of cigar and keep a different pet.
Who owns the fish?
Hints:
- The Brit lives in a red house
- The Swede keeps dogs as pets
- The Dane drinks tea
- The Green house is next to and on the left of the White house
- The owner of the Green house drinks coffee
- The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds
- The owner of the Yellow house smokes Dunhill
- The man living in the centre house drinks milk
- The Norwegian lives in the first house
- The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats
- The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill
- The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer
- The German smokes Prince
- The Norwegian lives next to the blue house
- The man who smokes Blends has a neighbour who drinks water.
I unfortunately misplaced the solution thinking that I didn’t want to bias the process by knowing the answer, however, I’m fairly certain I have the solution and would love to compare the answer with those of you thinking of giving this a go. Please send your solution using “Comments”.
Enjoy!
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Comments 6
Hi Mi,
I have just made up this solution. I think it works okay …
BRIT SWEDE DANE NORWEG GERMAN
House Red White Blue Yellow Green
Pets Birds Dogs Horse Cats *FISH*
Drink Milk Beer Tea Water Coffee
House 3 5 2 1 4
Smokes Pall Mall Blue Mas Blends Dunhill Prince
Hi Alison, I got the same answer as you did. Did it take you long to solve?
Hi Mi,
It took about 20 minutes. I just had to allocate houses, pets, drinks etc. to every nationality etc….
The German in the green house who drinks coffee and smokes Prince is the one who owns the fish ;-p
Are you sure only 2% of the population can solve this?
Not my statistic! What do you think might be a more realistic %?
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