08 January 2026

Old Reader's Digest puzzle


Assume the goose (as pictured) is on the bed.  Via Australia Reader's Digest.  Answer below the fold...

Six.  That's all for today.  I'll see myself out...

5 comments:

  1. OK, I got four.

    But my logic is based on only the four legs of the bed touching the floor, because any of the living creatures contact with the floor, and I include the human viewer's, would be via their feet, not their legs.

    Imagine reading a book wherein it states "Thomas fell from the first floor window, it may well have been an unfriendly act of defenestration, but either way, he landed on his legs" ... it's going to be feet, isn't it.

    I'll await any comment from Reader's Digest, or others, to thwart my logic.

    My personal experience with chickens is they glide more than fly, so I fear a trick element by them being included in the puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Feet are the bottom bit of the legs, therefore they count as legs. I do appreciate your logic though. The actual answer is nobody knows, because it doesn't explicitly state you walk into the room alone, that there aren't other people, animals, or even insects, in there already.

      The very fact "you" are mentioned, much like Chekov's gun, suggests you're going to be used in the answer.

      Delete
  2. The answer is four. For it to be six, the observer would have to be walking on two legs (anatomically from the knee to the ankle), not feet. It does come down to how "leg" is defined.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I first thought four, then I thought that this bed would have to have many more legs to hold all that weight. Queen and king size beds often have six or nine legs. Then I discarded that as silly, because it's a riddle and means nothing more than it says. That led me back to the person walking in the room, so six it is.

    ReplyDelete
  4. YOU ENTER A ROOM, you are in the room too, so the answer is six

    ReplyDelete

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