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

Why Wine Glass Stem is so long?

Wine Glass

Asked by Neha on 24 Jul 2023


Rectify the following equality 101 - 102 = 1 by moving just one digit.

Mathematical Signs Magic

Asked by Neha on 08 Mar 2021

A maths symbol is hidden in the below Bar Graph. Can you decipher it?

Maths Symbol Graph

Asked by Neha on 27 Mar 2021


Consider this about a word: The first two letters signify a male, the first three letters signify a female, the first four letters signify a great, while the entire world signifies a great woman. What is the word?

Asked by Neha on 08 Jun 2025

Why is 6 afraid of 7?

Asked by Neha on 28 Oct 2024

Can you replace the X (both small and big x) with the numbers between 1 to 19 such that all the rows of 3 numbers between X (big x) sum to 23?

Replace Shaped Puzzle

Asked by Neha on 05 Oct 2025


Keyboard words are not in alphabetical order, Why?

Asked by Neha on 26 Jul 2023

There are two beautiful yet remote islands in the South Pacific. The Islanders born on one island always tell the truth, and the Islanders from the other island always lie.
You are on one of the islands and meet three Islanders. You ask the first which island they are from in the most appropriate Polynesian tongue, and he indicates that the other two Islanders are from the same island. You ask the second Islander the same question, and he also indicates that the other two Islanders are from the same island.
Can you guess what the third Islander will answer to the same question?

Asked by Neha on 03 Jan 2026

Nodes are shown below and you need to connect them based on the following rule: Every node can be connected to the number of nodes inside them, i.e. the first node there is a value of 1 which indicates that the first node can connect to exactly one node only.Can you do it?

Nodes Connectivity Riddle

Asked by Neha on 20 Dec 2020


You are confined in a room and given two metal rods. Out of these two rods, one is magnet and the other is the iron rod. They look starkly similar. You don't have any other metal object in the room.

How will you decide which one of those is magnet?

Asked by Neha on 25 Apr 2021

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Out of the Box

The phrase “thinking outside the box” was popularised from the solution to a topographical puzzle involving 9 dots in a box shape.