Who stole the Goldfish?
Note: Full question credits go to TED-education channel . Just had to share.
The world's rarest fish has been stolen from the city aquarium. The police have followed the scent to a street with five identical looking houses that are next to each other. But they can't search all the houses at once, and if they pick the wrong one, the thief will know they're on his trail. As the city's best detective, it is up to you to solve the case. The police tells you what they know:
• Each house's owner is of a different nationality(Brit, German, American, Chinese, Indian), drinks a different beverage (Water, Milk, Tea, Coffee, Soda), smokes a different type of Cigar (Blends, Dunhill, Camel, Prince, Pall Mall).
• Each house's interior walls are painted of a different color. (Red, Yellow, White, Blue, Green).
• Each house contains a different type of animal: Rabbit, Cat, Dog, Bird and the stolen fish.
You have the following set of clues:
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The Brit lives in the house with red walls.
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The Chinese has a dog.
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The American drinks tea.
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The house with green walls is directly to the left of the house with white walls.
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The owner of the house with green walls drinks coffee.
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The person who smokes Pall Mall cigars owns a bird.
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The owner of the house with yellow walls smokes Dunhill cigars.
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The man living in the center house drinks milk.
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The Indian lives in the first house.
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The man who smokes Blends lives next to the cat owner.
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The rabbit's owner lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill. .
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The man who smokes Camel drinks soda.
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The German smokes Prince.
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The Indian lives next to the house with blue walls.
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The man who smokes Blends has a next-door neighbor who drinks water.
Who stole the fish?
Help: It may look like a lot of information, but there is a clear logical path to the solution. Solving it will be a lot like Sudoku, so you may find it helpful to organize it in a grid.
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I would draw a table first like this so that whenever I arrive at an answer I would write it down to avoid confusion:
First off, from clue 9, we can see that the Indian leaves in the first house. From clue 8, we have that the person who lives in the center drinks milk. Since the Norwegian lives at the end of the street, we can conclude that the second house has blue walls on its interior according to clue 14.
Clue 5 says the green walled house's owner drinks coffee. It cannot be the center house since its owner drinks milk, but it also could not be the second house since it has blue walls. Clue 4 says the green walled house is directly left to the white walled house. It cannot be the first house since it is directly left to the blue walled house. It also cannot be the last one since there is no house right to it. So the green walled house must be house four and we know its owner drinks coffee. The house right to it is white walled according to clue 4.
Clue 1 gives me a nationality and a color. The only column missing a nationality and a color is the center one. So the Brit lives in the center house, has red walls and he drinks milk according to clue 1 and 8. Now the only house without a color is the first one, it must have yellow interior walls.
Clue 7 says that the owner of the house with yellow walls smokes Dunhill cigars which is the first house. Clue 11 says that the rabbit's owner lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill which can only be the second house. The next step is to figure what the Norwegian drinks. It cannot be tea since the American drinks it. It cannot be soda since that person smokes Camel. So the Norwegian drinks it must be water. Clue 15 says that The man who smokes Blends has a next-door neighbor who drinks water. Since the Norwegian's only neighbour is the second house, it means that the second house's owner smokes Blends. Now the only spot in the grid without a drink a a cigar is the fifth column which must be the home of the person who smokes Camel and drinks soda from clue 12. This leaves only the second house without a drink. So this must be the home of the tea drinking American from clue 3.
The fourth house is now the only who is missing a nationality and a cigar brand so the Prince-smoking German from clue 13 must be living here. Through elimination we can conclude the Brit smokes Pall Mall and the Chinese lives in the last house. From clue 6 and 2 we can conclude the Brit has a bird and the Chinese has a dog respectively. Clue 10 tells that the cat owner lives to the man who smokes Blends which means the Indian owns a cat. The only spot left in the grid says that the German is the thief.