Legend has it that this puzzle was created by Albert Einstein as a boy. Einstein said that only 2% of the world could solve it. Considering that there are 5!^5 or 24,883,200,000 combinations with only 1 correct solution, are you up for the challenge?

Riddle

  1. There are 5 houses in five different colors.
  2. In each house lives a person with a different nationality.
  3. These five owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar and keep a certain pet.
  4. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar or drink the same beverage.

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’s owner drinks coffee ☕
  6. the person who smokes Pall Mall 🚬 rears birds 🐦
  7. the owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill 🚬
  8. the man living in the center house drinks milk 🍼
  9. the Norwegian lives in the first house
  10. the man who smokes blends 🚬 lives next to the one who keeps cats 😺
  11. the man who keeps horses 🐴 lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill 🚬
  12. the owner who smokes BlueMaster 🚬 drinks beer 🍺
  13. the German smokes Prince 🚬
  14. the Norwegian lives next to the blue house
  15. the man who smokes blend 🚬 has a neighbor who drinks water 🌊

My Pencil & Paper Solution

  • Hints: 8,9,14 We can see that the Norwegian lives in the first house and that he lives next to the blue house. We also learn here that the owner who lives in the center house drinks milk.
??? Blue ??? ??? ???
Norwegian ??? ??? ??? ???
??? ??? Milk ??? ???
??? ??? ??? ??? ???
??? ??? ??? ??? ???
  • Hints: 4,5 Since the owner of the green house drinks coffee he cannot be the owner in the center. That leaves the first, fourth, and fifth positions open, however in hint #5 we see that he lives on the left of the house that is white so “Mr. Green” cannot be first either. That leaves position four, and five. The last deduction is that he must live in the forth house because the fifth position isn’t left of anything.
??? Blue ??? Green White
Norwegian ??? ??? ??? ???
??? ??? Milk Coffee ???
??? ??? ??? ??? ???
??? ??? ??? ??? ???
  • Hint: 1 If the Norwegian lives in the first house and the Brit lives in the red house then that places the red house square in the center. This means the Norwegian lives in the yellow house.
Yellow Blue Red Green White
Norwegian ??? Brit ??? ???
??? ??? Milk Coffee ???
??? ??? ??? ??? ???
??? ??? ??? ??? ???

  • hint: 15 The man who smokes blends lives next to someone who drinks water, this hint eliminates the white house, leaving either yellow or blue.

  • Hint: 7 The Norwegian smokes Dunhill so this bring us back to hint 15, if the Norwegian smokes Dunhill and not blends, only the owner of the blue house smokes blends. Let’s not forget that the man who smokes blends also lives next to someone who drinks water, and since the Brit drinks milk, we can deduce that the Norwegian drinks water.

Yellow Blue Red Green White
Norwegian ??? Brit ??? ???
Water ??? Milk Coffee ???
Dunhill Blends ??? ??? ???
??? ??? ??? ??? ???
  • Hint: 11 We see here that the owner who keeps the horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
Yellow Blue Red Green White
Norwegian ??? Brit ??? ???
Water ??? Milk Coffee ???
Dunhill Blends ??? ??? ???
??? Horses ??? ??? ???

  • Hint: 12 If the owner who smokes BlueMaster drinks beer, only Blue & White are possible houses. Since the owner of the blue house already smokes blends, we have deduced that the owner of the white house smokes BlueMaster and drinks beer

  • It looks as though through process of elimination we’ve also deduced that the owner of the blue house drinks tea.

  • Hint: 3 The Dane happens to drink tea

Yellow Blue Red Green White
Norwegian Dane Brit ??? ???
Water Tea Milk Coffee Beer
Dunhill Blends ??? ??? BlueMaster
??? Horses ??? ??? ???

  • Hint: 2, 13 The German smokes Prince, he must live in the green house since white smokes BlueMaster and the other houses are already occupied (i.e. Red -> Brit), ergo the German lives in the green house.

  • Process of elimination has also revealed that the remaining race left is the Swede, therefore the Swede must live in the white house.

  • Hint: 2 The Swede keeps dogs as pets

Yellow Blue Red Green White
Norwegian Dane Brit German Swede
Water Tea Milk Coffee Beer
Dunhill Blends ??? Prince BlueMaster
??? Horses ??? ??? Dogs

  • Yet another process of elimination on who smokes what, reveals one spot left for Pall Mall. The Brit must smoke Pall Mall.

  • Hint: 6 We also find in hint #6 that the person who smokes Pall Mall also rears birds. The Brit rears birds.

Yellow Blue Red Green White
Norwegian Dane Brit German Swede
Water Tea Milk Coffee Beer
Dunhill Blends Pall Mall Prince BlueMaster
??? Horses Birds ??? Dogs
  • Hint: 10 For our final clue, we learn that the individual who smokes blends lives next to the one who keeps cats. We find that not only is it the Norwegian who keeps cats, but through process of elimination we have solved the final piece of the puzzle, and that is that the German owns the fish!
Yellow Blue Red Green White
Norwegian Dane Brit German Swede
Water Tea Milk Coffee Beer
Dunhill Blends Pall Mall Prince BlueMaster
Cats Horses Birds Fish Dogs

So there you have it, the German owns the fish. This was an article I wrote on WordPress back in 2016, but I had worked out the solution some years earlier on paper.