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?

(In reply to No Solution!... unless I am missing something (spoilers) by nikki)

If Hal is in apartment #1 then, by reasoning, he must have the wren. This is not possible.
Clue 4 tells you this when it states that Gil is neither from apartment #1 NOR the wren-lover. There is a clear indication that the apartment #1 dweller and the wren-lover are two different people.

Hal can't be in apartment #4, because the guilty party isn't obvious. The problem tells us that we will know who is guilty once we put people in their places, so the ambiguity excludes that as a solution.

Hal can't be in apartment #2. Only Ike or Joe can live there

That leaves Hal in apartment #3 and the rest of your eloquent reasoning for that case leads us to Joe, with the Crow in apartment #1 as the thief.

Posted by Bruce on 2004-10-22 06:52:40