“ How many livestock have you Farmer Giles?”
“All cows but four” he replied.
“All bulls but four” he also replied.
“Have you any horses?”
“I have as many horses as cattle, not counting the chickens!”
“Have you many chickens?”
"I'm not sure how many chickens I have."
How many livestock did Farmer Giles have?

The above text was copied verbatim from “Mensa puzzle book II” (by Carter and Russel).
While the book provides a solution to this dialog, another valid solution was somehow not quoted.

Please find both.

(In reply to re(2): solutions by Charlie)

Though Mensa puzzles are often clever, I infer from Ady's posting this puzzle, he somewhat agrees with me that some Mensa puzzle-makers fail to consider possible alternate solutions, and are not as clever they should be. 

The statement "I'm not sure how many chickens I have" does not really agree with Farmer Giles first two statements. Either he does know the number of chickens he has (meaning he does make false statements, and any of his statements could be a lie), or the number of chickens he has was not included in his count of livestock, or he had a post-realization that the number he had was more or less than he made in his initial replies. Other possibilities exist. The existence of such possibilities reveal that the puzzle is flawed.

Posted by Dej Mar on 2014-10-22 16:18:10