Logical Puzzle No. 1
March 23rd, 2009
I’ve added a book of logical puzzles to my assets today, and I thought it’d be fun to share some with you. Here goes for the first puzzle! Clues and solution will be posted later this week.
An Ogre kept three children prison in his hole in the deepest part of the forest. He expected it to be fun: poking at them with a long stick through the bars of their cell, but the larger of the three children managed to get hold of the stick and push it up the Ogre’s nose. As Ogres go, this particular Ogre had no sense of what money means to people and it did not occur to him to perhaps lower the ransom to get rid of the children in a timely fashion. Instead, he managed to come up with a riddle for his amusement and the excitement of a possible barbecue at the end.
He brought in a box with five hats: two red and three white. Then he blindfolded his three prisoners and placed a hat on each head, after making sure the larger of the children’s hands were bound.
“Each one of you must guess the colour of the hat on your own head,” the Ogre said in his meanest voice, “without using a mirror,” he added. Not that it mattered; he didn’t actually have a mirror. Mirrors never really caught on in the Ogre community. They tended to break as soon as they were placed on a wall. “I’ll take off your blindfolds one by one and let you try. If not one of you guesses correctly, I will roast all of you and eat you with a big pint of Gwompky’s Grease! Hehehe.”
Abel, the largest, was used to taking charge. “Don’t worry,” he said, “I shall save us,” and he bid the ogre take off his blindfold first. He examined the hats his brother and sister were wearing and then admitted that he didn’t know what colour hat he was wearing. The Ogre’s eyes began looking for bits of dead and dry wood and chestnuts.
Benjamin, the second oldest, insisted that he be given the next chance. He, too, was sure that he could save his brother, his sister and himself. But after his blindfold was removed, he, too, had to admit that he did not know the colour of the hat he was wearing. The Ogre’s stomach gave a big rumble.
Then their sister Paula said: “I don’t need you to take off my blindfold. I can tell you what colour hat is on my head.”
What colour hat was Paula wearing?
My name is Marco Hokke. My blog is about the things that interest me and things I might forget if I would not blog them.
One Response to “Logical Puzzle No. 1”
1Ruben
March 27th, 2009 @ 5:21 pm
White.
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