Bonnie bought a bag of birdseed. She left it in her apartment (#5) before she went to work, intending to fill the feeder that afternoon. But when she got back, the bag of birdseed was gone!

  There were four other people living in the same apartment building as her, all of whom were avid birdwatchers like Bonnie. One of them must have done it. Look at the clues below. If you know everybody's name, apartment number (#1 through #4), and favourite bird, you will know who is guilty.

1. The guilty person's apartment number is not numbered one higher or one lower than Hal's.
2. Joe's favourite bird is the crow; his apartment number is one lower than that of Ike (who doesn't like robins).
3. The guilty person's apartment is not #3 (the number of the finch-lover's).
4. Gil is neither at apartment #1 nor the wren-lover.

Whodunit?

Here's the answer:

Hal -- Apt. 1, Wren

Joe -- Apt. 2, Crow

Ike -- Apt. 3, Finch

Gil -- Apt. 4, Robin, Guilty

Here's the question:

Either Hal or Gil are guilty.  Both work.  Hal's number is not one above or below Hal's number. The same is true for Gil. I think it is probably Gil who is guilty, unless we take clue #1 too literally.

Posted by Vikram Sundaram on 2004-12-11 18:01:05