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There are 5 houses in 5 different colours. In each house lives a person of a different nationality. The 5 owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet. Using the clues below can you determine who owns the fish?

The Brit lives in a red house.

The Swede keeps dogs as pets.

The Dane drinks tea.

The green house is on the immediate left of the white house.

The green house owner drinks coffee.

The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.

The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.

The man living in the house right in the middle drinks milk.

The Norwegian lives in the first house.

The man who smokes Blend lives next door to the one who keeps cats.

The man who keeps horses lives next door to the man who smokes Dunhill.

The owner who smokes Blue Master drinks chocolate.

The German smokes Prince.

The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.

The man who smokes Blend has a neighbour who drinks water.

This is called Einstein's puzzle. I am only posting it to increase the familiarity of this puzzle to PSE. PLEASE do not use the internet to solve this question.

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  • $\begingroup$ I am only asking for the answer and explanation, not strategies to get to the answer. $\endgroup$
    – user41805
    Commented Jun 8, 2015 at 16:05
  • $\begingroup$ One issue I have with this question is that it does not state that each person has a distinctly different type of pet, just that they "keep a certain pet". So technically, no one could have a pet fish, and the German could have a dog like the Swede [or some other animal]. (they both keep a certain pet: a dog) $\endgroup$
    – Mark N
    Commented Jun 8, 2015 at 16:42
  • $\begingroup$ Damn! I was going to post this one - you beat me to it! ;-) +1 for a good puzzle, even if it is a duplicate. $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Jun 8, 2015 at 17:10

1 Answer 1

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The German has the fish.

Norwegian |Dane   |Brit      |German |Swede
Yellow    |Blue   |Red       |Green  |White
Water     |Tea    |Milk      |Coffee |Chocolate
Dunhill   |Blend  |Pall Mall |Prince |Blue Master
Cats      |Horses |Birds     |Fish   |Dogs

Explanation:

We know that the Norwegian lives in the first house, he lives next to the blue house, and the person living in the middle drinks milk.

Norwegian|      |         |      |
         |Blue  |         |      |
         |      |Milk     |      |
         |      |         |      |
         |      |         |      |

Next, green house must be to the left of the white house, and the person in the green house drinks coffee. So the green house must be fourth, and the white house fifth.

Norwegian|      |         |      |
         |Blue  |         |Green |White
         |      |Milk     |Coffee|
         |      |         |      |
         |      |         |      |

There's only two houses that we don't know the colors of: the first one and the third one, which must be red and yellow. The person in the red house is a Brit. He must be in the third house.

Norwegian|      |Brit     |      |
Yellow   |Blue  |Red      |Green |White
         |      |Milk     |Coffee|
         |      |         |      |
         |      |         |      |

The person in the yellow house smokes Dunhill, and there are horses next door.

Norwegian|      |Brit     |      |
Yellow   |Blue  |Red      |Green |White
         |      |Milk     |Coffee|
Dunhill  |      |         |      |
         |Horses|         |      |

The person who smokes Blend lives next to a person who drinks water, so he must be the second person.

Norwegian|      |Brit     |      |
Yellow   |Blue  |Red      |Green |White
Water    |      |Milk     |Coffee|
Dunhill  |Blend |         |      |
         |Horses|         |      |

The person who smokes Blue Master drinks chocolate, so he must be fifth person. The second person must drink tea and is the Dane.

Norwegian|Dane  |Brit     |      |
Yellow   |Blue  |Red      |Green |White
Water    |Tea   |Milk     |Coffee|Chocolate
Dunhill  |Blend |         |      |Blue Master
         |Horses|         |      |

The German smokes Prince, so he must be the fourth person. Therefore, the Swede is the fifth person and the Brit smokes Pall Mall.

Norwegian|Dane  |Brit     |German|Swede
Yellow   |Blue  |Red      |Green |White
Water    |Tea   |Milk     |Coffee|Chocolate
Dunhill  |Blend |Pall Mall|Prince|Blue Master
         |Horses|         |      |

The person who smokes Pall Mall has birds and the Swede has dogs.

Norwegian|Dane  |Brit     |German|Swede
Yellow   |Blue  |Red      |Green |White
Water    |Tea   |Milk     |Coffee|Chocolate
Dunhill  |Blend |Pall Mall|Prince|Blue Master
         |Horses|Birds    |      |Dogs

The person who smokes Blend has cats next door. So the Norwegian has cats, and the German has fish.

Norwegian|Dane  |Brit     |German|Swede
Yellow   |Blue  |Red      |Green |White
Water    |Tea   |Milk     |Coffee|Chocolate
Dunhill  |Blend |Pall Mall|Prince|Blue Master
Cats     |Horses|Birds    |Fish  |Dogs
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