A year or so I bought a puzzle book compiled by Charles Barry Townsend.
It included this, which has always impressed me, not difficult to "work out" - and requires no explaination, but I can't resist sharing it with you. I think most of the appeal is that not only is it a curious puzzle, but it is written in verse.



The Wayward Inn (Author unknown)

Ten weary footsore travelers
All in a woeful plight,
Sought shelter in a Wayside Inn
One dark and stormy night.

"Nine beds - no more", the Landlord said,
"I have to offer you,
To each of eight a single room,
But the ninth must serve for two."

A din arose. The troubled host
Could only scratch his head;
For of those tired men, no two
Would share one single bed.

The puzzled host was soon at ease,
He was a clever man -
And so to please his guests devised
A most ingenious plan.

A B C D E F G H I

In room marked A two men were placed,
The third he lodged in B:
The fourth to C was then assigned -
The fifth retired to D.

In E the sixth was tucked away,
And in F the seventh man;
The eighth and ninth in G and H,
And then to A he ran.

Wherein the host, as I have said,
Had laid two travelers by,
Then taking one - the tenth and last,
He lodged him safe in I.

Nine single rooms, a room for each
Were made to serve for ten,
And this it is that puzzles me,
And many wiser men.

I don't get what is being asked.

Ten minutes typing wasted then!

I would not want to be that last traveller, waiting patiently while either the first or second got that last room.

Easy, he counted one of the travelers twice. In the poem it says he placed two men in A. At the end he comes back and brings one of the men from A to I, counting him again as the tenth traveler.

Shane Wiker

The brilliant Paul Curry turned this into a magic trick with pictures of magicians and their hats.

/Tomas

I believe that Robert E. Neale also used this as a basis for a great story and effect in his "Tricks of the Imagination".

By the way, those interested in the Paul Curry trick that Tomas mentioned can find it in Curry's "Magician's Magic".

Paul

I recall Paul Curry also having a version that used donkeys(Democrats)
and elephants(Republicans). Anyone remember the name of this packet
trick?