Albert Einstein is undoubtedly one of the most famous physicists of all time, even the people not interested in physics know his name. His theories for the universe and his understanding of life were beyond the comprehension of most people. However, what most people fail to realize is that Einstein did not become a physicist until the age of 26, prior that he showed his genius to the world by coming up with a riddle that is still considered one of the most logically complex riddles to this day.
Einstein’s Riddle
Before solving the riddle, let’s see what the riddle actually is and how it is set up. While there are varying ways the riddle is presented to the newer generation, but the overall idea and data are the same, in some variants the riddle is simply laid out while in others a complete scenario is presented.
In this, a rare fish has been stolen from an aquarium and police are able to narrow it down to 5 houses. They cannot simply rush into each house, because if they picked the wrong house the thief would get to know and will simply escape. So a detective is called, that is you, to solve this mystery and police provide you with details of what they know so far and this is how the riddle is laid out.
- There are five houses with each house having a distinct colored interior.
- One person lives in each house and occupants of each house are of different nationalities.
- Each of these five individuals, drinks a certain type of beverage, smokes a certain type of cigar and has a different pet.
- Finally, no house owner has the same pet, beverage, or cigar.
Now that we know these important criteria, there are important hints given by Einstein to solve the riddle, otherwise, it wouldn’t be possible.
1. The Brit lives in a house with red interiors.
2. The Swede only keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The house with green interiors is to the left of the house with white interiors.
5. The owner of the house with green interiors drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Malls keeps birds.
7. The person in the house with yellow interiors 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 a cat.
11. The man with a pet horse lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
12. The person who smokes BlueMaster drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the house with blue interiors.
15. The owner who smokes blend has a neighbor who drinks water.
The Riddle: Your job as a detective here is to find which house has the fish.
Explanation
While it may seem like it is a lot of information if we take it step-by-step and create a table it is easy for us to understand what exactly is happening. Ultimately, this riddle is based on the process of elimination and going back and forth with the hints.
A table for Einstein’s riddle.
To begin with, we can jump straight to hint 8 and establish that the person living in the central house drinks milk and from hint 9 we can tell the Norwegian lives in the first house. Since there are only five houses in the puzzle, thanks to hint 14, we can tell that the second house has blue interiors. Now if we move to hints 4 and 5, we can establish the fourth house is with the green interiors and his owner drinks coffee while the fifth house has white interiors. Next, hint 1 tells us that the Brit lives in a house with red interiors, and only the central house checks these criteria. Now the only house left unassigned of the color is the first one, so Dane’s house is with a yellow interior and by hint 7 we can be certain he smokes Dunhill. According to hint 11, the second house owner has a pet horse. Now using the process of elimination and hints 3 and 12, we can establish that the Norwegian drinks water, and by knowing this and reading hint 15 we can tell the second house owner smokes blends. At this point only one remaining without a drink and a cigar is the fifth house, therefore, it must be used as hint 12, which leaves us the Dane in the second house using hint 3. Again thanks to the process of elimination, we can see German lives in the fourth house as it is the only one left without a cigar and nationality and we can confirm this by hint 13. Also, now we can be certain that the Brit smokes Pall mall and the Swede lives in the fifth. By hints 2 and 6 we can tell the Swede has a dog and Pall Mall smoker; the Brit keeps a pet bird. Finally, with hint 10 we can tell that the Dane keeps a cat. This leaves us the Fourth house with the culprit and this indeed is the right answer to the puzzle.
The solution to Einstein’s riddle.
As you can tell it is quite a complex riddle that will force you to go back and forth for hints and rethink your strategy. However, with patience and the process of elimination, it can be solved.
