River Crossing

There is a river to cross using a river raft and there are eight people (father, mother, policeman, thief, 2 daughters and 2 sons). No one knows to operate the raft except the adults and also excluding the thief. Only two people can go in the raft at a time. The raft should keep coming back and forth in order to pick and drop the people.
Rules to be followed:
Father: the father cannot stay in the raft or outside the raft without the presence of the mother.
Mother: the mother cannot stay in the raft or outside the rat without the presence of the father.
Thief: the thief is not allowed to stay with any of the family members unless there is a policeman.
Policeman: the policeman can travel with anyone.
2 sons and 2 daughters: they are not allowed to travel in the raft without the presence of an adult. They cannot either travel in the presence of only thieves without the policeman. The sons cannot be with their mothers without their father's supervision. The daughters are not allowed to be there with their fathers without the supervision of their mothers. But the daughters and the sons can be left unsupervised (as long as the other rules are applied).
What is the sequence that the people should follow in order to cross the river through the raft keeping in mind all the rules?
The rules are applicable not only in the raft but also outside the raft.




Similar Riddles

Jessica is telling her friends this story and asks them to guess if it’s the truth or a lie: “There was a man sitting in a house at night that had no lights on at all. There was no lamp, no candle, and no other source of light. Yet, he sat in the house and read his book happily.” Her friends say she’s lying, but Jessica corrects them and says she’s telling the truth. Jessica’s story is true—but how?

Asked by Neha on 25 Jun 2025


10 people came into a hotel with 9 rooms and each guest wanted his own room. The bellboy solved this problem.
He asked the tenth guest to wait for a little with the first guest in room number 1. So in the first room, there were two people. The bellboy took the third guest to room number 2, the fourth to number 3, ..., and the ninth guest to room number 8. Then he returned to room number 1 and took the tenth guest to room number 9, still vacant.
How can everybody have his own room?

Asked by Neha on 21 Aug 2023

What does man love more than life, and hate more than death or mortal strife; that which satisfied men want; the poor have, and the rich require; the miser spends, the spendthrift saves, and all men carry to their graves?

Asked by Neha on 23 Jun 2025


Find the next number in the sequence

1, 2, 6, 21, 88, __?

Asked by Neha on 14 Mar 2024

How can you throw a ball as hard as you can and have it come back to you even if it doesn't hit anything there is nothing attached to it and no one else catches or throws it.

Asked by Neha on 06 Nov 2025

No one wants to have it, but if one got it, he does not want to lose it. What is It?

Asked by Neha on 11 Jan 2021


Look at the below sequence of letters and tell us what the next letter should be:

O T T F F S S ?

Asked by Neha on 02 Jan 2024

I have branches, but no fruit, trunk or leaves. What am I?

Asked by Neha on 18 May 2022

Assume the given figure to be a delicious doughnut. Yes, now you can concentrate more on the puzzle. So you have this delicious doughnut in your refrigerator when your friends come knocking at the door. There are eight of them. Now you have to make three cuts in this doughnut so that each one of you nine people can enjoy a piece of it. Neither you nor your friends would mind the size of their piece as long as they are getting it. How will you do it?

Doughnut Distribution

Asked by Neha on 10 May 2024


What kind of tree can you carry in your hand?

Asked by Neha on 14 Aug 2025

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Gamers

In 2011, people playing Foldit, an online puzzle game about protein folding, resolved the structure of an enzyme that causes an Aids-like disease in monkeys. Researchers had been working on the problem for 13 years. The gamers solved it in three weeks.