can you solve this riddle?

Question

There are 5 houses of 5 different colors on one street.
In each house lives a man, each of a different nationality.
The 5 men each drink a certain type of beverage,
smoke a certain brand of cigars and
keep a certain pet.
None of the men have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar
or drink the same beverage.

The question is: Who owns the fish?


Hints:

The Brit lives in the red house.

The Swede keeps dogs as pets.

The Dane drinks tea.

The green house is on the left of the white house.

The green house's owner drinks coffee.

The man who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.

The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.

The man living in the center 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 the horse lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.

The man who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.

The German smokes Prince.

The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water

Answer 1

It is often called "Einstein's Puzzle" or "Einstein's Riddle" because it is said to have been invented by Albert Einstein as a boy, with the common claim that Einstein said "only 2 percent of the world's population can solve this". It is also sometimes attributed to Lewis Carroll. However, there is no known evidence for Einstein's or Carroll's authorship.

There are several versions of this puzzle. The version below is quoted from the first known publication in Life International magazine on December 17, 1962. The March 25, 1963 issue contained the solution given below and the names of several hundred solvers from around the world.


The original puzzle
There are five houses.
The Englishman lives in the red house.
The Spaniard owns the dog.
Coffee is drunk in the green house.
The Ukrainian drinks tea.
The green house is immediately to the right of the ivory house.
The Old Gold smoker owns snails.
Kools are smoked in the yellow house.
Milk is drunk in the middle house.
The Norwegian lives in the first house.
The man who smokes Chesterfields lives in the house next to the man with the fox.
Kools are smoked in the house next to the house where the horse is kept.
The Lucky Strike smoker drinks orange juice.
The Japanese smokes Parliaments.
The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
Now, who drinks water? Who owns the zebra?
In the interest of clarity, it must be added that each of the five houses is painted a different color, and their inhabitants are of different national extractions, own different pets, drink different beverages and smoke different brands of American cigarettes. One other thing: In statement 6, right means your right.

Discussion
The premises leave out some details, notably that the houses are in a row.

Since neither water nor a zebra is mentioned in the clues, there exists a reductive solution to the puzzle, namely that no one owns a zebra or drinks water. If, however, the questions are read as “Given that one resident drinks water, which is it?” and “Given that one resident owns a zebra, which is it?” then the puzzle becomes a non-trivial challenge to inferential logic. (It should be noted that a frequently encountered variant of the puzzle asks “Who owns the fish?”)

It is possible not only to deduce the answers to the two questions but to figure out who lives where, in what color house, keeping what pet, drinking what drink, and smoking what brand of cigarettes.


Solution
Warning: Solution details follow.



house 1 2 3 4 5
color yellow blue red ivory green
nationality Norwegian Ukrainian Englishman Spaniard Japanese
drink WATER tea milk orange juice coffee
smoke Kools Chesterfield Old Gold Lucky Strike Parliament
pet fox horse snails dog ZEBRA


Here are some deductive steps that you can follow to derive the solution. A useful method is to try to fit known relationships into a table and eliminate possibilities. Key deductions are in italics.


STEP 1

We are told the Norwegian lives in the 1st house (10). It does not matter whether this is counted from the left or from the right. We just need to know the order, not the direction.

From (10) and (15), the 2nd house is Blue. What color is the 1st house? Not Green or Ivory, because they have to be next to each other (6). Not Red, because the Englishman lives there (2). Therefore the 1st house is Yellow.

It follows that Kools is smoked in the 1st house (8) and the Horse is kept in the 2nd house (12).

So what is drunk by the Norwegian in the 1st, Yellow, Kools-filled house? Not Tea since the Ukrainian drinks that (5). Not Coffee since that is drunk in the Green house (4). Not Milk since that is drunk in the 3rd house (9). Not Orange Juice since the drinker of Orange Juice smokes Lucky Strike (13). Therefore it is Water (the missing beverage) that is drunk by the Norwegian.


STEP 2

So what is smoked in the 2nd, Blue house where we know a Horse is also kept?

Not Kools which is smoked in the 1st house (8). Not Old Gold since that house has Snails (7).

Let's suppose Lucky Strike is smoked here, which means Orange Juice is drunk here (13). Then consider: Who lives here? Not the Norwegian since he lives in the 1st House (10). Not the Englishman since he lives in a Red house (2). Not the Spaniard since he owns a dog (3). Not the Ukrainian since he drinks tea (4). Not the Japanese who smokes Parliaments (14). Since this is an impossible situation, Lucky Strike is not smoked in the 2nd house.

Let's suppose Parliaments is smoked here, which means the Japanese lives here (14). Then consider: What is drunk here? Not Tea since the Ukrainian drinks that (4). Not Coffee since that is drunk in the Green house (4). Not Milk since that is drunk in the 3rd house (9). Not Orange Juice since the drinker of that smokes Lucky Strike (13). Again, since this is an impossible situation, Parliaments is not smoked in the 2nd house.

Therefore, Chesterfields is smoked in the 2nd house.

So who smokes Chesterfields and keeps a Horse in the 2nd, Blue house? Not the Norwegian who lives in the 1st House (10). Not the Englishman who lives in a Red house (2). Not the Spaniard who owns a dog (3). Not the Japanese who smokes Parliaments (14). Therefore, the Ukrainian lives in the 2nd House, where he drinks Tea (5).


STEP 3

Since Chesterfields is smoked in the 2nd house, we know from (11) that the Fox is kept in either the 1st house or the 3rd house.

Let us first assume that the Fox is kept in the 3rd house. Then consider: what is drunk by the man who smokes Old Gold and keeps Snails (7)? We have already ruled out Water and Tea from the above steps. It cannot be Orange Juice since the drinker of that smokes Lucky Strike (13). It cannot be Milk because that is drunk in the 3rd house (9), where we have assumed a Fox is kept. This leaves Coffee, which we know is drunk in the Green house (4).

So if the Fox is kept in the 3rd house, then someone smokes Old Gold, keeps Snails and drinks Coffee in a Green house. Who can this person be? Not the Norwegian who lives in the 1st house (10). Not the Ukrainian who drinks Tea (5). Not the Englishman who lives in a Red house (2). Not the Japanese who smokes Parliaments (14). Not the Spaniard who owns a Dog (3).

This is impossible. So it follows that the Fox is not kept in the 3rd house, but in the 1st house.


STEP 4

From what we have found so far, we know that Coffee and Orange Juice are drunk in the 4th and 5th houses. It doesn't matter which is drunk in which; we will just call them the Coffee house and the Orange Juice house.

So where does the man who smokes Old Gold and keeps Snails live? Not the Orange Juice house since Lucky Strike is smoked there (13).

Suppose this man lives in the Coffee house. Then we have someone who smokes Old Gold, keeps Snails and drinks Coffee in a Green (4) house. Again, by the same reasoning in STEP 3, this is impossible.

Therefore, the Old Gold-smoking, Snail-keeping man lives in the 3rd house.

It follows that Parliaments is smoked in the Green, Coffee house, by the Japanese (14). Which means the Spaniard must be the one who drinks Orange Juice, smokes Lucky Strike and keeps a Dog. Which means the Englishman lives in the 3rd house, which is Red. Which means the Spaniard's house is the Ivory one.

By now we have filled in every 'blank' except one, and it is clear that the Japanese is the one who keeps the Zebra.

Answer 2

The coffee-drinking, Prince Cigar-smoking German in the green house owns the fish!

Answer 3

The German owns the fish

Answer 4

The Norwegian.

Answer 5

Hmm I'm an excellent riddle solver but since there are no best answers then I'm stumped.Uh because the guard hired Osama Bin Ladden to crash the plane?

Answer 6

I love those riddles, thank you!!!
The German (Green house, Coffee, Prince, fish)

Answer 7

the Norwegian

Answer 8

I'll get back to u on that.... when I have more energy to take in those hints.... it got too long that I'm just like "i'll figure it out later!" hehehe

Answer 9

the german

Answer 10

Basement bob you are the man.