Linear Thinking Riddle

There are four people in a house. A fireman, an athlete, an old woman, and a drunk guy. The house catches fire and before the fact is known, it is too late. All they know is that the entire house is in flames and it will collapse exactly after twelve minutes. Now they can move out of the house but for that, they will have to pass the hallway which is entirely blazing with flames. Thus to move, one must carry a fire extinguisher to keep the flames away. Seeking the burnt wooden floor, only two people can run through that hallway at one time. But for others to go, one must return back with the fire extinguisher. The fireman is trained for such tasks and can run through the hallway in a minute. The athlete can make it in a couple of minutes. The old woman can run slowly and will cover the hallway in four minutes. The drunk guy will take five minutes to run through it. If all of them can make it through the hallway in twelve minutes, all of them will be saved. When two move together, they will run at the speed of the slower ones.

How will all four of them manage to run to safety?




Similar Riddles

Can you find the odd number in the following five choices?

1) 482636
2) 259807
3) 865195
4) 104739
5) 391744

Asked by Neha on 24 Nov 2024


Find the missing number in the image below.

Find the missing

Asked by Neha on 11 May 2025

Can you replace the question mark with the correct number?

Fill in the Question Marked Space

Asked by Neha on 09 Mar 2024


I’m light as a feather, yet the strongest person can’t hold me for five minutes. What am I?

Asked by Neha on 15 Feb 2022

In the Wild West, you are challenged into a death match by two bounty hunters nicknamed Golden Revolver (GR) and Killer Boots (KB). You accept the challenge. None of you want to waste any of the bullet and so a certain rules are laid down:

1) All of you will shoot in a given order till the last man standing.
2) Each of you shoots only once upon his turn.
3) If any one of you is injured, the other two will finish him off with an iron rod.
4) The worst shooter of all (which is you) shoots first and the best one shoots at the last.

Now, how will you plan things if you know that you hit every third shot of yours, KB hits every second shot and GR hits every shot ?

Asked by Neha on 15 Dec 2025

What do you answer even though it never asks you questions?

Asked by Neha on 12 Oct 2021


There are two insects on a tile. Insect X is sitting on one side of the tile (point A) and Insect Y is sitting opposite on the other side of the tile (point B). Now both of them decide to change their position and thus X starts crawling to point B and Y starts crawling to point A. When they meet and pass each other in between, X takes 20 seconds to reach B and Y takes just 5 seconds to reach A.

Can you calculate the total time each of the insects took to change their positions?

Asked by Neha on 25 Feb 2026

A farmer and his neighbour once went to Emperor Akbar"s court with a complaint. "Your Majesty, I bought a well from him," said the farmer pointing to his neighbour, "and now he wants me to pay for the water."
"That"s right, your Majesty," said the neighbour. "I sold him the well but not the water!"?
The Emperor asked Birbal to settle the dispute. How did Birbal solve the dispute?

Asked by Neha on 10 May 2021

There are are five things wrong with this sentence; only geniuses will be able to to spot all of the mitstakes

Find the Mistakes

Asked by Neha on 12 Aug 2021


In the Mexico City area, there are two Houses H1 and H2. Both H1 and H2 have two children each.
In House H1, The boy plays for Mexico Youth academy and the other child plays baseball.
In House H2, The boy Plays soccer for his school in Mexico and they recently have a newborn.

Can you prove that the probability of House-H1 having a girl child is more than that of House-H2?

Asked by Neha on 06 Jun 2024

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Challenging

There is a cryptic organization called Cicada 3301 that posts challenging puzzles online, possibly to recruit codebreakers and linguists.