Einstein’s Riddle

Einstein wrote the following riddle. He claimed that 98% of the world could not solve it:

1. There are five houses in five different color.
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:

the Brit lives in the red house

the Swede keeps dogs as pets

the Dane drinks tea

the green house is on the left of the white house

the green house’s owner drinks coffee

the person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds

the owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill

the man living in the center house drinks milk

the Norwegian lives in the first house

the man who smokes blends lives next to the one who keeps cats

the man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill

the owner who smokes BlueMaster drinks beer

the German smokes Prince

the Norwegian lives next to the blue house

the man who smokes blend has a neighbor who drinks water

Most people spend about 30-60 minutes working this out. People have done this quickly, and a few of the people I know were even industrious enough to work the riddle out in Excel.

Something I found exceptionally interesting about this riddle is that Einstein’s proposed answer is not the only possibility! There are actually three correct answers to this. I do wish I Mr. Einstein was still here so that I could email him and discuss this further. I’d explain his mistake, and offer to make the riddle even better by eliminating his answer from possibility, leaving only one as the only correct one. Here’s the challenge I’d throw Einstein’s way:

Take your same riddle, and add the following conditionals to your list:

(Tip: get creative and think laterally.)

Al said 98% of the world could not get his riddle. Assuming he was accurate, I’d say that of the remaining 2% that do succeed, 98% of them won’t be able to make it work with the cat owner living next door to the green house and the Pall Mall smoker living next door to the blue house.

Good luck! Answers will be posted later.