One Horse Town

Puzzler time. It is time for the new/old puzzler. Here it is.

Imagine the scene.

A fellow is driving across the desert in Nevada, when all of a sudden, he finds himself in urgent need of a haircut.

He says, "I need a haircut now. I'll never make it to the next city."

So he finds himself in desperate need of a haircut. He takes the next exit, which is exit 411 to a little one horse town, named One Horse, Nevada.

And as luck would have it, in One Horse, Nevada, there are two barber shops. So he has to decide which one to go to for his haircut.

The guy goes to barber shop number one and looks in the window. There are no customers in the barber shop. The barber shop is kind of messy, and even the barber, who was the only one in the place, is kind of messy too. He's unshaven. He's got a lousy shirt on. There's hair on the floor, and even his haircut is lousy.

So the guy says to himself, "Maybe I should check out the other barber shop in One Horse."

So he walks on down the street to find the second shop. He arrives at barber shop number two and looks in the window. It looks terrific. It's nice and neat and clean. The mirrors are clean and shiny. There's no hair on the floor. Even the barber himself looks neat and well groomed, and he has a great haircut.

So the puzzler question, very simply, is this.

Based on the information that you have, which barber shop do you think he goes to and why?

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

The Wise Queen

We have used this one before. A long, long time ago. But it is time to bring it back.

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, there lived a queen who wished to find the wisest woman in the realm to be her assistant.

She searches far and wide. She finally summons the three known wisest women to her court. She decides to administer the following test.

She says, "I'm going to put either a red hat or a white hat on each of your heads."

She faces them in a circle, and standing behind them, she proceeds to place three red hats on their heads, one red hat on each of their heads. They are facing each other, but they cannot see themselves. They can only see each other.

Then she says, "If you can see another red hat, raise your hand."

Then they all raise their hands, because they are all wearing red hats. Although they cannot see themselves, only the other people in the room.

Then she says, "If you can tell what color hat you have on, stand up."

Time goes by. Nothing happens. They all look around at each other. Finally, after a time, one woman stands up and she says, "I'm wearing a red hat."

The question is, how did she know that she was wearing a red hat? Remember there are no mirrors, and she can only see the other women in the room, not herself.

So, how did she know that?