Einstein’s Fish Puzzle

By Alex in Everything Else on Dec 21, 2006 at 8:38 am

Here’s a puzzle from Coudal Partners, titled "Whose Fish?" supposedly created by Albert Einstein:

This brainteaser, reportedly written by Einstein is difficult and Einstein said that 98% of the people in the world could not figure it out. Which percentage are you in?

There are five houses in a row in different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The five owners drink a different drink, smoke a different brand of cigar and keep a different pet, one of which is a Walleye Pike.

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 owner drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Malls keeps birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhills.
8. The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk.
9. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
10. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the one who smokes Dunhills.
12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Princes.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.

There are no tricks, pure logic will get you the correct answer. And yes, there is enough information to arrive at the one and only correct answer.

Sure enough, Coudal has the answer (and another puzzle for those smart enough to figure this one out): Link


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  1. Miss Cellania
    Dec 21st, 2006 at 9:01 am

    I would think that 98% of people would look at this and think its too difficult to try! But if everyone just made a random guess, 20% would get it correct.

  2. Ian
    Dec 21st, 2006 at 9:19 am

    I shouldn’t think it’s too hard once you get out a pen and paper and start plotting it all. Of course, if you have to do it in your head then the 98% may be right.

  3. Sarah
    Dec 21st, 2006 at 9:22 am

    I think, after working it out on paper, that it’s the German who owns the fish. (he also drinks coffee, smokes Princes, and lives in a green house.)

  4. Elly
    Dec 21st, 2006 at 9:22 am

    I agree with Ian. Not too difficult, but I definitely needed a pencil and paper!

  5. Dougald Lamont
    Dec 21st, 2006 at 11:29 am

    I can say with 99% certainty that Einstein had fuck all to do with coming up with this question.

  6. terces
    Dec 21st, 2006 at 12:14 pm

    It seems to be the German, here’s my chart:

    Brit red house birds milk pall malls
    Swede white house dog beer bluemasters
    Dane blue house horses tea blends
    Norwe. yellow house cats water Dunhills
    German green house walleye coffee Princes

  7. Coudal
    Dec 21st, 2006 at 12:40 pm

    Hi, thanks for linking the puzzle. We have packaged it up in a nice portable, printable PDF file so you can take it to your holiday party and fight with your family about something new for a change! It’s right here…

    http://www.coudal.com/thefish.php

    Happy Holidays from the CP Crew.

  8. Rence
    Dec 21st, 2006 at 2:28 pm

    I got stuck because I had some problems with what was meant with 1st house (is that actually the most left or the most right? It depends on how you look at them).. same with left and right… so I thought the puzzle could be clearer on that and decided that there is no way that Einstein thought of this puzzle.

  9. Melissa
    Dec 21st, 2006 at 9:53 pm

    I’m confused. If I came up with the correct answer (German fish) by using an Excel spreadsheet, does that disqualify me or just make me geekier?

  10. Jenny
    Dec 21st, 2006 at 11:24 pm

    Got it right! And Melissa, I made little boxes too, I like keeping it nice and organized :) …I think that’s the way most people do it.

  11. Becki
    Dec 22nd, 2006 at 1:54 am

    Can anyone “show their work”? The Coudal site just shows a fish speaking German. If you’re going to put up a challenging, stimulating, and supposedly famous historic puzzle set by Einstein himself, then please do it justice by showing everyone how the miracle of logic works, rather than being coy and smug about it. Otherwise, future puzzles you and Coudal put up only attract the logic elite who solved this one. The “what the hell is this object” posts are more illuminating in that they show different ways people try to come at an answer. All we’ve got so far on this one is the answer and no illuminative explanation.

  12. Kipling
    Dec 22nd, 2006 at 12:36 pm

    This was awesome! I did it in about 15 minutes at the end of the day at work, of course drawing the little houses and having lines for nationality, drink, smoke and pet really helped figure it out. I brought it home to my 10 year old stepson and we had a good time doing it together; I thought it was a cool excercise in logical thinking. Thanks Neatorama!

    Psst to Becki: the clues aren’t in the order you need them. Start with number 10.

  14. Kenneth
    Dec 27th, 2006 at 3:50 am

    to Becki and the others wanting someone to “show their work” I’ve made this spreadsheet in excel that is, hopefully, an ok explanation..

    check out http://wamp.ath.cx/sites/wamp/fishie.xls

  15. meredith
    Feb 12th, 2007 at 9:35 pm

    Ah, this version states “one of which is a Walleye Pike…” when many others do not.

    Now, how nerdy is it to say that that significantly affects the answer to the question?

    I can believe that Einstein created the puzzle phrased the other way, and the German would be the incorrect answer!

  16. Phil
    Apr 15th, 2007 at 11:46 am

    I recall doing these relationship puzzles all the time in school.

    As for another method for solving solve, the image below is the way we always solved them.

    Clue #10, The Norwegian lives in the first house, is filled in the example. Start plotting all the givens, and then start connecting the relationships:
    http://img485.imageshack.us/img485/3313/puzzlevu1.jpg

  17. Mary Ann
    Jun 9th, 2007 at 3:29 am

    Solved it!! Took me two hours laying in the sun and jumping into the pool. Pure chewing satisfaction!

  18. ashly
    Dec 6th, 2007 at 9:06 am

    the german have the fish

  19. E
    Jun 10th, 2008 at 10:49 am

    For those who don’t know, you are supposed to do this riddle in your head, without writing anything down. (!) Try it – it is much more difficult to keep track of all the layers of information in you head. I think this has more to do with being able to store and recall information than being “smart”.

  20. sprecho
    Dec 21st, 2008 at 4:52 pm

    i finish this after 5 sec.
    einstein is from germany so isnt logical that german have fish :D

  21. e=mc^2
    Apr 9th, 2009 at 6:33 pm

    there’s something wrong about the riddle…because Norwegian is the first house but it is next to the blue house..how was that???

  22. Chad
    Aug 5th, 2009 at 1:24 pm

    Okie this was interesting. I do admit I cheated and looked at the answer. I just wanted to understand the the question and the goal of the question. Really it’s just a process of elimination. Just go through the whole puzzle and discover who doesn’t have a pet. Not sure if I would have gotten it or not, I’m more interested in the purpose of the question. Which here is just to make you think.

  23. Dale
    Aug 25th, 2009 at 6:57 pm

    i took 32 mins to complete this…
    i didnt get anything for like 10mins, and once i started the problem was easy :D

  24. sunny
    Oct 3rd, 2009 at 12:47 am

    it is easiy. after completing thr zebbra puzzle it was quite easiy.i think the german owns the fish.i finished in about 10 minutes.


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