Late Tuesday riddle

Hopefully

Alex Y

whoever solves this will explain HOW. I never can get this type of puzzle.

Re: Late Tuesday riddle

Larry Barrett

I think the German has the fish.

Re: Late Tuesday riddle

Mike Donaldson

You think correctly, the German does indeed have the fish. Now, how did you get there?

Re: Late Tuesday riddle

Larry Barrett

First, number the clues (1-15).

From clue 9 and 14 we know the Norwegian is in the first house and the next house is blue; I assumed that the houses must go from left to right (first house is on the left). I think the same solution will work if we assume houses go from right to left, but did not follow this completely.

From clue 1 we know the first house is not red, and from clue 4 (green house is to the left of the white house) we can conclude that the first house is yellow.

So houses, from left to right, must be Y, B, R, G, W or Y, B, G, W, R.

From clue 1 we know Brit is in the R house; from clue 8 the man in the house in the middle drinks milk.

From clue 5 (man in green house drinks coffee). So G house can not be in the middle, and we can conclude that the the house order is Y, B, R, G, W and we know that the Norwegian is in the Y house and the Brit is in the R house and drinks milk.

From clue 7 we know the Norwegian plays hockey. From clue 11 the man in the B house keeps horses.

From clue 3 (Dane drinks tea), the Dane must be in the B house or the W house.

From clue 13 (man who plays billiards drinks beer) we know this man can not be in the Y house or R house, or G house, so must be in the W house or B house, whichever house the Dane is not in.

Also, we can conclude that the Norwegian drinks water, since that is the only drink left.

From clue 15 we know that the man in the B house plays baseball. And, since the man who plays billiards can not be in the B house, he must be in the W house; so the Dane must be in the B house.

At this point we have:

House....Y...B...R...G...W

Person...N...D...B

Drink.....W...T...M...C...B

Sport.....H...Ba............Bi

Pet.............H

From clue 13 (German plays soccer), we know German lives in G house (therefore the Swede must live in the W house) so we have:

House....Y...B...R...G...W

Person....N...D...B...G...S

Drink......W...T...M...C...B

Sport......H...Ba.......S...Bi

Pet..............H

From clue 6 we know the Brit plays polo and keeps birds.

From clue 10 we know the Norwegian keeps cats.

From clue 2 we know the Swede keeps dogs. So it looks like this:

House....Y...B...R...G...W

Person....N...D...B...G...S

Drink......W...T...M...C...B

Sport......H...Ba.......S...Bi

Pet.........C...H...B.........D.

Ergo, German must keep fish.

Re: Late Tuesday riddle

Alex Y

Thanks for posting that, Larry. Now I've got to set aside a couple of hours to follow it, and maybe I'll see how to approach this type of problem!

Amazing

I thought this would be interesting to run through ChatGPT. It wasn’t very good at this kind of thing before, but this time it got it right on the first try and gave a clear, detailed explanation of its reasoning.

1. The Norwegian lives in the first house → House 1 = Norwegian

2. The man living in the centre drinks milk → House 3 = Milk

3. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house → House 2 = Blue

4. Green house is on the left of the white house → Green must be immediately left of White

5. Green house owner drinks coffee → Green = Coffee

• Houses 1–5: First house is Norwegian, next is blue.

• Green must be left of White, so possibilities for Green/White:
  

  • Houses 3–4: Green + White

  • Houses 4–5: Green + White

• But House 3 drinks milk → Green drinks coffee → House 3 cannot be Green.

✅ Therefore, Green = House 4, White = House 5, House 4 drinks coffee.

• House colors so far:
  

  • 1 = ?, 2 = Blue, 3 = ?, 4 = Green, 5 = White

• The Brit lives in a red house → Red must be House 3 or 1 → House 3 is not green/white/blue → House 3 = Red, House 3 = Brit.

• House 1 = Norwegian → House 1 ≠ red/blue/green/white → House 1 = Yellow

• The owner of the yellow house plays hockey → House 1 = Hockey

• The man who keeps horses lives next to the one who plays hockey → House 2 = Horses

• The Dane drinks tea → Dane must be House 2 or 5 (milk = House 3, coffee = House 4) → House 2 drinks tea → Dane = House 2

• The man who plays polo rears birds → Unknown yet

• The man who plays billiards drinks beer → Unknown yet

• The German plays soccer → Unknown yet

• The Swede keeps dogs → Unknown yet

• The man who plays baseball lives next to the man who keeps cats → Unknown yet

• The man who plays baseball has a neighbour who drinks water → Unknown yet

• Drinks left: Beer, Water

• Billiards → Beer → One house drinks Beer & plays Billiards

• Baseball has neighbour who drinks water → One house drinks Water

• Sports left: Polo, Baseball, Soccer

• German plays Soccer → So German ≠ House 1–3 → House 4 or 5 = German, Soccer

• Polo → Birds

• Baseball → neighbour has water

• Pets left: Cats, Birds, Dogs, Fish (the fish is what we are looking for)

• Swede keeps Dogs → Swede must be House 5 (last option left) → House 5 = Swede, Dogs

• Polo → Birds → Only remaining: House 3 or 4 → House 3 already has Brit → assign Polo & Birds to House 3? Check carefully.

• House 3 = Brit, Milk → Sport left: Polo or Baseball?

• House 1 = Hockey (Yellow) → Pet? left: Cat/Fish/Bird

• House 2 = Dane, Tea, Sport left: Baseball or Polo, Pet left: Cat/Fish/Bird

• Man who plays Baseball lives next to man with Cats → House 2 or 3?

Let's assign systematically.

• Yellow, Norwegian, Hockey → Pets left: Cat or Fish?

• Blue, Dane, Tea, ? sport → Must be Baseball (since next to cats)

• Houses 1 or 3 may have Cats → House 1 or 3 = Cats

• House 1: Pet = Horses? Already House 2 has Horses → House 1 cannot → House 1 Pet = Cats

✅ House 2: Baseball, Pet = ?

• House 2 has Baseball, neighbour drinks water? → House 1 or 3 drinks Water → House 1 Pet = Cats → House 2 = Baseball, Tea → House 2 neighbour drinks Water → House 3 drinks Milk → House 1 drinks Water

✅ House 1 Drink = Water

• House 2 Pet = ? left: Fish? → Could be Fish

• Red, Brit, Milk → Sport left: Polo → Polo → Birds → House 3 Pet = Birds

• Sport = Polo

• Green, ?, Coffee → German? Possibly → Sport = Soccer → Pet left: Fish?

• White, Swede, ?, ?, Dogs → Drink left: Beer → Sport = Billiards → Pet = Dogs

✅ All clues fit:

• Brit = Red ✔

• Swede = Dogs ✔

• Dane = Tea ✔

• Green left of White ✔

• Green = Coffee ✔

• Polo = Birds ✔

• Yellow = Hockey ✔

• Milk in centre ✔

• Norwegian first ✔

• Baseball next to Cats ✔ (House 2 Baseball, House 1 Cats)

• Horses next to Hockey ✔ (House 2 Horses, House 1 Hockey)

• Billiards = Beer ✔

• German = Soccer ✔

• Norwegian next to Blue ✔ (House 1 → House 2 Blue)

• Baseball neighbour drinks water ✔ (House 1 drinks water, next to House 2 Baseball)

The German in the green house owns the fish.
Answer: The German