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Who Has the Fish?

Here is a fun little puzzle for those who enjoy solving puzzles. Supposedly it was created by Einstein and only 2% of the world population can solve it. Not so sure about that, but here it is anyway...

[via http://www.coudal.com/thefish.php]

There are five houses in a row in different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The five owners drink a different drink, smoke a different brand of cigar and keep a different pet, one of which is a Walleye Pike.

The question is-- who owns the fish?

Hints:

  1. The Brit lives in the red house.
  2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
  3. The Dane drinks tea.
  4. The green house is on the left of the white house.
  5. The green house owner drinks coffee.
  6. The person who smokes Pall Malls keeps birds.
  7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhills.
  8. The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk.
  9. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
  10. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
  11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the one who smokes Dunhills.
  12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
  13. The German smokes Princes.
  14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
  15. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.

There are no tricks, pure logic will get you the correct answer. And yes, there is enough information to arrive at the one and only correct answer.

Yes, I was able to find the answer. I will reveal it in a few days. Have fun! and don't cheat and look it up on Google or something. It's really not that hard (assuming I am right :-P )

Categories: Misc Tags:
  1. Dave
    August 6th, 2005 at 17:23 | #1

    I tried this…the German has the fish ;) (not sure if you're previewing these comments first before posting, so I hope I didn't spoil it for anyone).

    What is more interesting to me is how everyone goes about solving it…what is the "method" that people use.

  2. V
    January 25th, 2008 at 15:40 | #2

    My method for solving this was...... I first put 5 houses side by side and put them in order, then i did a table graph of all the things that were provided and then did process of elimination until every house had a pet except for the one w/o a pet....and there goes your answer.

  3. Morganoflight
    March 2nd, 2008 at 11:51 | #3

    I needed only 45min and i had fever xD but your methode was mine methode too

  4. Amanda
    April 23rd, 2008 at 00:24 | #4

    But no where does it say that the fifth animal was a fish!!!! It could have been a hamster:)

  5. February 20th, 2009 at 18:10 | #5

    its the german in the white house which is the 5th house.

  6. keeth
    March 16th, 2009 at 02:15 | #6

    But no where does it say that the fifth animal was a fish!!!! It could have been a hamster:)

    You're right, it could have been a hamster. However, in this case, it is assumed that the unmentioned animal is the animal we are looking for, and that is the reason for the problem. Besides, it doesn't matter if it was mentioned, because you'd end up with the same result no matter what.

    (HOUSE)
    MAN: Norwegian * LIVES IN FIRST HOUSE, LIVES NEXT TO BLUE HOUSE
    COLOR: green * TO LEFT OF WHITE HOUSE, OWNNER DRINKS COFFEE
    DRINK: coffee * OWNER OF GREEN HOUSE DRINKS COFFEE
    SMOKE: Pall Mall * OWNER OF PALL MALLS HAS BIRD
    PET: bird * OWNER OF BIRD HAS PALL MALLS

    (HOUSE)
    MAN: German * SMOKES PRINCE
    COLOR: blue * LIVES NEXT TO NORWEGIAN
    DRINK: water * NEIGHBOUR SMOKES BLEND
    SMOKE: Prince * SMOKED BY GERMAN
    PET: fish

    (HOUSE)
    MAN: Swedish * HAS DOG FOR PET
    COLOR: white * TO RIGHT OF GREEN HOUSE
    DRINK: milk * OWNER OF MIDDLE HOUSE DRINKS MILK
    SMOKE: Blend * LIVES NEXT TO HOUSE THAT HAS CAT, NEIGHBOUR DRINKS WATER
    PET: dog * OWNED BY SWEDISH MAN

    (HOUSE)
    MAN: Danish * DRINKS TEA
    COLOR: yellow * SMOKER OF DUNHILLS OWNS YELLOW HOUSE
    DRINK: tea * DRUNK BY DANISH MAN
    SMOKE: Dunhill * OWNER OF YELLOW HOUSE SMOKES DUNHILL, LIVES NEXT TO THE ONE WHO HAS A HORSE
    PET: cat * LIVES NEXT TO ONE THAT SMOKES BLEND

    (HOUSE)
    MAN: British * LIVES IN RED HOUSE
    COLOR: red * RED HOUSE BELONGS TO BRITISH MAN
    DRINK: beer * ONE THAT SMOKES BLUEMASTER DRINKS BEER
    SMOKE: Bluemaster * ONE THAT DRINKS BEER SMOKES BLUEMASTER
    PET: horse * LIVES NEXT TO THE ONE THAT SMOKES DUNHILL

  7. keeth
    March 16th, 2009 at 02:22 | #7

    By the way, it took me about 15 minutes to solve this. I created a list of houses and applied random bits of the information given to us (random man, random color, random drink, etc). I then proceeded to apply the rules (called "clues" here :)) to each entry until all of the conditions were met.

    Voila.

  8. Cypo
    July 25th, 2009 at 05:09 | #8

    @keeth
    Yes german has the fish but...
    ...you've got the colors of the houses wrong.
    If norwegian lives in the house no one and next to the blue house he can't live in the green house, because green is on the left of the white one.
    The right color order is
    1 Yellow - Norwegian
    2 Blue - Danish
    3 Red - English
    4 Green - German
    5 White - Swedish

    Voila

  9. djkjr
    August 26th, 2009 at 15:26 | #9

    Now, the statistic says that only 2% of people can get this right. Well it seems that at first glance that would be grossly incorrect since even a frosh of any high school could get it after some deductive reasoning. Perhaps that's the point. Getting the "german" as the andwer is the gag. You're right, but you're wrong. No on has the fish. The german is "x" where x=the infinitee amount of possibilities of either having/not having/having multiple, pets. No one has the fish. Those who disagree with that are the reason why it's only 2%. This is just a theory.

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