Four jolly men sat down to play;

And played all night till break of day;

They played for money and not for fun,

With separate scores for every one.

Yet when they came to square accounts,

They all had made quite fair amounts!

Can you the paradox explain?

If no one lost, how could all gain?

Another plausible solution, that fits the riddle in every way, is simply that the men were playing cards, but not against each other, or that another party (or parties) were playing with the men and lost money to them. If the intended solution is that they were musicians, maybe it could be stated somewhere that they were playing together and with no one else. That rules out playing separate card games, and, coupled with the line of "separate scores," might make a more challenging riddle with a 'cleaner' answer. Otherwise, it's hard to say that other solutions are 'wrong' just because they're not what you were thinking of.

Posted by DJ on 2003-04-24 20:18:01