I’m sure many of us remember the riddle about the lion, the goat and the yam. For those of us who did not hear or remember the riddle, I’ll spin it one more time for clarity sake. A farmer is taking a trip and he has with him a lion, a Goat and a tuber of yam. He comes to a bridge with no alternate routes (all other bridges and footpaths have purportedly been washed away by some disaster) and finds out the bridge is old and shaky and cannot support the weight of his two big animals and himself at the same time. He decides that he cannot cross with all his possessions at once or else the bridge would give way and the villagers would have a lovely folk tale that ended with “……………and so, the two animals, the yam and the man were eaten by Fluffina , the resident crocodile”. After pondering on why an entire village would decidedly name the resident crocodile Fluffina, the man goes about his business of transporting the animals individually and the following issues arise;
- If he carries the lion first, the goat left alone with the yam will consume it.
- Secondly, if he carried the yam to safety he would return to meet the bones of his goat and meat conspicuously hanging from the lions teeth.
Thus goes the riddle, how does this man cross the bridge with proper consideration of the safety of his tuber and his mammal?
Not exactly a puzzle cache, but just a riddle to get your brain thinking. Have fun!