The Most Difficult Riddle Ever Made
In my (admittedly biased) opinion, this “A man walks into a bar…” riddle is the most difficult of its kind ever made. If you enjoy logic puzzles and have a lot of spare time, give it a go!
The Puzzle:
A man walks into a bar in, sets down two identical US bills on the counter, and makes an order. He asks for one rum, two margaritas, one vodka, two Pepsis, one lemonade, and three waters.
The bartender, who always gives change back in the minimum number of coins and bills possible, gives him two bills and one coin in change, then goes to prepare his drinks.
The man realizes that if he had paid the bartender with only one of any larger bill, he would not have received the same change. When the bartender returns, the man takes his drinks and leaves the bar.
The man returns home and decides to challenge his wife. He tells her what he ordered, how much it cost, and how much change he received. Then he gives her the following seven clues:
- For every one of a specific drink bought, a customer can buy another of the same drink for half price. (When necessary, the tab is rounded up to the nearest penny after all drinks have been ordered.)
- If a customer buys five vodkas or one of any other drink, the bartender does not have to give any coins with the change
- If he had bought one lemonade, one margarita, or one lemonade and two margaritas with the amount he paid for his order, the bartender would have given him back no fewer than six bills
- If he had added a second rum to his order, the total number of bills plus the total number of coins the bartender would have given him back would be no fewer than six
- The second of any alcoholic drink never costs less than any non-alcoholic drink
- No drink costs more than the first margarita
- Three waters cost less than the first of any other drink
Finally, he asks his wife how much each drink cost him.
“Not only do I have an answer for you,” she tells him after working through his challenge, “but you gave me extraneous information.”
How much does each drink cost, and which clue does the wife not need to determine the cost of each drink?
Assume that margaritas, vodkas, and rums are the only alcoholic drinks; $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 bills are the only US bills; and 1, 5, 10, and 25 cent coins are the only US coins.
The Answer:
- Rum: $5.00
- Vodka: $5.75
- Margarita: $6.00
- Pepsi: $2.00
- Lemonade: $2.00
- Water: $0.00
- Clue 3 is unnecessary for the wife.
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12 Comments
sam, posted this comment on Dec 14th, 2007
Man that was easy i solved it after reading it. All i had to do was scroll down!
sam-ass, posted this comment on Feb 16th, 2008
Oh man, we have found ourselves a genious…
Nice one. Realy tough!
oops - wrong box, posted this comment on Mar 31st, 2008
I meant to say: If he orders a marg and a lemon he gets back 32$, that is to say 4 bills. It doesn’t read as an “either” or, it reads as an “and” or. Like he should get 6 bills back if he orders one lem and one marg and he should get 6 bills back if he orders one lem and two margs. Like when people ask if you want cream or sugar in your coffee, that “or” is an “and” or: they are asking two distinct questions: do you want cream? do you want sugar? Do you want tea or coffee is (usually) an “either” or, do you want one or rather the other…
double shenanigans!, posted this comment on Apr 1st, 2008
Also: W = 0, L = 1, P = 2, M = 13, V = 5.25, and R = 5 is a second valid answer, which makes the riddle crud.
faeryty, posted this comment on May 2nd, 2008
@ previous poster.
W = 0, L = 1, P = 2, M = 13, V = 5.25, and R = 5
is not a valid answer. The margarita price fails at clue 3. It only requires 4 bills to give change.
When I solved this I thought clue 4 was the extraneous one. Why is clue 3 necessary whilst clue 4 unnecessary?
Relax1230, posted this comment on Aug 14th, 2008
Anyone figure out why mine is wrong?
Rum = 3
Marg = 10
Vodka = 8.20
Pepsi = 4.00
Lemonade = 1
Water = 0.22
How can vodka be 5.75? Clue 2 states 5 vodkas = no change (5 vodkas OR 1 of any drink, meaning all other drinks end in X.00) 5.75 * 5 = 28.75 aka .25 change…
Relaxx1230, posted this comment on Aug 14th, 2008
NVM I think im misreading clue 3 somehow because the given answer wouldnt work the way i look at it… I read it as lets say he paid 40 for the whole thing, he would get no fewer than 6 bills if he paid 40 for just 1 marg and 1 lemon or 2 marg and 1 lemon. That way u get 1lemon + 1marg = 8 40-8 = 32 which is 4 bills… negating the clue so Im reading it wrong i guess =(
Elie, posted this comment on Sep 6th, 2008
Relax1230 is so right !!!
5 Vodkas cost (28.75) the same as the total of the sum of drinks the guy bought ! why in the case of the vodka no change in coins will be given?
Elie A.J, posted this comment on Sep 6th, 2008
sorry i spoke too soon :
For the vodkas actually don\’t cost 5*5.75 but
5.75+(5.75/2)+5.75+(5.75/2)+5.75 = 23 ! no coins !
Elie, A.J, posted this comment on Sep 6th, 2008
Clue 4 should be The change is 6 bills and coins and not “no less” cause this will create new answers such as:
R:3, M:5, V:7.25, P:1, L:1, W:0
of course this choice would fail on Clue 3 ! which is essential to the solution, since a lot of answers arise if this clue wasn’t available,
KES, posted this comment on Dec 10th, 2008
Wow… that’s a little too long for me. I read part of it, but it’s really complicated! I could probably not solve it, ever! Hehe! (^_^)
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Jeremy, posted this comment on Aug 18th, 2007
I actually put the answers about a page of white space below the riddle and had the font white so you would have to highlight it to see the answers, but I guess the changed the format to make it more user friendly. Enjoy!