Einstein’s five-houses riddle
In a street there are five houses, painted five different colours. In each house lives a person of different nationality.
These five home-owners each drink a different kind of beverage, smoke different brand of cigar and keep a different pet.
1. The British man lives in a red house.
2. The Swedish man keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Danish man drinks tea.
4. The Green house is next to, and on the left of the White house.
5. The owner of the Green house 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 man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The Blends smoker lives next to the one who drinks water.
Who owns the fish?
This riddle was by Albert Einstein. He claims that only 2% of the world’s population can solve it.
The German has the fish and drinks coffee in the green house, which is fourth on the block.
a) We know that Norwegian lives in the 1st house (Hint: #9) and next to him lives a guy who stays in a blue house (Hint: #14). So far we have the following:
| 1st House | 2nd House |
| Norwegian | Blue House |
b) We know that the green house is on the left of the white house (Hint: 4), therefore we can form a new group with the Green and White house next to each other.
| Green House | White House |
c) Now think carefully the combination of (a) and (b). We should reach to the conclusion that the Norwegean guy who lives in the first house, he either lives in the Red or Yellow house since the Green & White houses group can only have a position of either 3-4 or 4-5.
d) Since the Brit is the guy who lives in the Red house (Hint: 1), now we definitely know that the Norwegian lives in the Yellow house. So far we have the following information:
| 1st House | 2nd House |
| Norwegian | Yellow |
| Blue |
| British |
| Red |
Group:
| Green House | White House |
e) Next, we know that the owner of the Green house drinks coffee (Hint: 5) and the man living in the center house drinks milk (Hint: 8). As a result, we conclude that the group of Green and Yellow house are the 4th and 5th house in order and that the center house (number 3) is the Brit.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Norwegian | British | |||
| Yellow | Blue | Red | Green | White |
| Milk | Coffee | |||
f) Hint 7 gives us another information on the first house (The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill). In-addition, the man who keeps the horse lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill (Hint 11), therefore the man living in house #2 keeps horses.
| House | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Nation | Norwegian | British | |||
| Color | Yellow | Blue | Red | Green | White |
| Drink | Milk | Coffee | |||
| Pet | Horses | ||||
| Smoke | Dunhill |
g) Hint 15 states that “The man who smokes Blend has a neighbor who drinks water.” We conclude that only 2 people can have a neighbor who drinks water (House 1&2), but since House #1 already smokes Dunhill that means that House #2 smokes Blend and House #1 drinks water.
| House | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Nation | Norwegian | British | |||
| Color | Yellow | Blue | Red | Green | White |
| Drink | Water | Milk | Coffee | ||
| Pet | Horses | ||||
| Smoke | Dunhill | Blend |
h) Hint 12 states “The owner who smokes Bluemaster drinks beer.” See the table above and you will notice that we are missing the drink only for houses 2 and 5 but since we already know that the owner of house 2 smokes Blend, then the combination of Hint 12 applies to house #5.
| House | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Nation | Norwegian | British | |||
| Color | Yellow | Blue | Red | Green | White |
| Drink | Water | Milk | Coffee | Beer | |
| Pet | Horses | ||||
| Smoke | Dunhill | Blend | Bluemaster |
i) Hint 3 states that “The Dane drinks tea.”. We are missing only the drink for house #2 therefore this applies to house #2.
| House | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Nation | Norwegian | Danish | British | ||
| Color | Yellow | Blue | Red | Green | White |
| Drink | Water | Tea | Milk | Coffee | Beer |
| Pet | Horses | ||||
| Smoke | Dunhill | Blend | Bluemaster |
j) Hint 10 states “The man who smokes Blend lives next to the one who keeps cats.” As a result, house #1 keeps cats since house #2 has the owner who smokes Blend.
| House | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Nation | Norwegian | Danish | British | ||
| Color | Yellow | Blue | Red | Green | White |
| Drink | Water | Tea | Milk | Coffee | Beer |
| Pet | Cats | Horses | |||
| Smoke | Dunhill | Blend | Bluemaster |
k) Hint #13 states that “The German smokes prince”. We are missing the nationalities of the owners who live in house #4 and #5 but since the owner of house #5 smokes Bluemaster, this hint applies to house #4.
| House | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Nation | Norwegian | Danish | British | German | |
| Color | Yellow | Blue | Red | Green | White |
| Drink | Water | Tea | Milk | Coffee | Beer |
| Pet | Cats | Horses | |||
| Smoke | Dunhill | Blend | Prince | Bluemaster |
l) Hint #6 states that “The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds”. We are only missing the tabacco of House #3 therefore:
| House | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Nation | Norwegian | Danish | British | German | |
| Color | Yellow | Blue | Red | Green | White |
| Drink | Water | Tea | Milk | Coffee | Beer |
| Pet | Cats | Horses | Birds | ||
| Smoke | Dunhill | Blend | Pall Mall | Prince | Bluemaster |
m) Finally hint #2 states that “The Swede keeps dogs as pets”. This combination can only be applied to house #5.
| House | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Nation | Norwegian | Danish | British | German | Swedish |
| Color | Yellow | Blue | Red | Green | White |
| Drink | Water | Tea | Milk | Coffee | Beer |
| Pet | Cats | Horses | Birds | Dogs | |
| Smoke | Dunhill | Blend | Pall Mall | Prince | Bluemaster |
n) Now who owns the fish? The German owns the fish!!!
Congratulations, according to Einstein you now belong to the 2% of the people who can solve this riddle!!!
| House | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Nation | Norwegian | Danish | British | German | Swedish |
| Color | Yellow | Blue | Red | Green | White |
| Drink | Water | Tea | Milk | Coffee | Beer |
| Pet | Cats | Horses | Birds | FISH | Dogs |
| Smoke | Dunhill | Blend | Pall Mall | Prince | Bluemaster |
source – http://einsteinriddle.com/index.php/einstein-s-riddle-solution-explained
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