The housekeeper was standing there with an errand boy, who had been sent by the tailor to collect money for a suit. (Gong) Because the errand boy knew the housekeeper was deaf, he had handed her a piece of paper with one word written on it in large capital letters: MONEY [GELD]. But the housekeeper had no money with her, so to convey her request that he be patient, she drew just two more letters on the piece of paper. What were these two letters?
I had had enough of waiting. I headed out to find a little something to eat after such a tedious day. As I reached the street the moon was already in the sky. There had been a new moon a few days prior, and by now it had waxed to a narrow crescent that looked like the beginning of a capital German “Z” hovering over the rooftops. In front of me was a small pastry shop. I went in and ordered an apple cake with whipped cream. (Gong): When the apple cake with whipped cream arrived, it didn’t appeal to me. I told the waiter I would prefer a Moor’s Head.1 He brought me the Moor’s Head, which was delicious. I stood up to go. As I was just on my way out, the waiter ran after me, shouting: You didn’t pay for your Moor’s Head! — But I gave you the apple cake in exchange, I told him. — But you didn’t pay for that either, the waiter said. — Sure, but I didn’t eat it either! I retorted, and left. Was I right? This, too, I’d like to know.
As I arrived home, imagine my astonishment at seeing Anton, who had been waiting there for five hours. He wanted to apologize for the silly letter he had sent to me early this morning via his housekeeper. I said that it didn’t matter all that much, and then told Anton my whole day as I’ve just told it to you now. He couldn’t stop shaking his head. When my story was over he was so astounded that he was speechless. He then left, still shaking his head. As he disappeared around the corner, I suddenly realized: this time he really has forgotten his hat. And I — of course I had forgotten something as welclass="underline" to ask him the answer to my riddle (Gong): The peasant sees it often, the king only seldom, and God never at all.
But perhaps you’ve found the answer by now. And with this, I say goodbye.
Repetition of the fifteen questions:
1. The first question is an old German folk riddle: The peasant sees it often, the king only seldom, and God never at all. What is it?
2. What’s fishy about a barber who hangs an enamel sign in his window reading, “A shave today ten pfennigs, a shave tomorrow free”?
3. If I have a small circle and then around its center point I draw a circle whose circumference is five centimeters greater than that of the original, this creates a ring between the two circles. If I then take a giant circle, one as big as the circumference of the Earth, and around the same center point I draw another one, whose circumference is five centimeters greater than that of the first giant one, there is then a ring between those two circles. Which of the two rings is wider, the first or the second?
4. If the clock pendulum swings ten times to the right and ten times to the left, how often does it pass through the middle?
5. How can a man who is 100 years old have had only twenty-five birthdays?
6. What is the quickest way to add up all the numbers from one to 1,000? Try it first with the numbers from one to ten.
7. A country is surrounded by four other countries, each of which borders the middle country and two of the others. What is the fewest number of colors needed so that each country has a different color than its neighbors?
8. How do you spell dry grass with three letters?
9. How can you write 100 using only four nines?
10. In your ABC’s, which is the middlemost letter?
11. There are three identical flowers in a field. In the morning, how can you tell which of them has not been there overnight?
12. If each day a bookworm eats through one volume in a series of books, how long will it take for it to eat its way from the first page of one volume to the last page of the next, provided he eats in the same direction in which the series of books is arranged?
13. You have a piece of paper with the word “money” [Geld] written on it. Which two letters can you add to convey a request for patience [Geduld]?
14. What’s wrong with the logic of a man who orders a piece of cake, exchanges it for another once it arrives, and then won’t pay for the new piece because he claims he traded the old piece for it?
15. The old riddle once more, whose solution is worth four points because it has now appeared twice: The peasant sees it often, the king only seldom, and God never at all.
Answers to the fifteen questions:
1. His equal.
2. If the barber were serious about his offer, he wouldn’t have made a permanent sign out of enamel, because “tomorrow,” when shaves are free, will never come.
3. The two rings are of equal width.
4. The pendulum passes through the middle twenty times.
5. The man was born on February 29.
6. Calculate: 999 + 1 = 1,000; 998 + 2 = 1,000; 997 + 3 = 1,000; there are 500 such pairs. Then all that’s left is 1,000 at the high end, and 0 at the low end; so adding 1,000 to 500,000 gives a total of 501,000. Using the same method, the numbers from 1 to 10 add up to 60.2
7. Three colors are needed: one for the country in the middle, one for the two countries above and below the one in the middle, and a third color for the two countries to the left and the right of the one in the middle.
8. Hay.
9. 99 9/9.
10. B.
11. The flower that was not there overnight is the one with no dew on it.
12. The bookworm needs only a moment to get from the first page of the first book to the last page of the second, because in a properly arranged library, the first page of the first book is right up against the last page of the second.
13. Inserting the letters “du” into the middle of the German word for “money” [Geld] spells the German word for “patience” [Geduld].
14. The first piece of cake, which he did not pay for, does not belong to him, so he should neither eat it nor exchange it for the second piece.
15. His equal.
List of the fifteen mistakes:
1. Heinz realizes that summer daylight saving has just begun and sets his watch back one hour. He should set it one hour forward.
2. If the barbershop is just around the corner and it would take him as long as three minutes to get there, it would be impossible for him to see it.
3. If Heinz is cut on his right side, the wound will be on the left side of his reflection.
4. Nineteen marks cannot be disbursed in five-mark notes.
5. Five groschen and twenty five-pfennig coins equals 1.50 marks. Heinz should have received only ninety pfennig in addition to the nineteen marks, because he gave the barber twenty marks for a shave that cost ten pfennig.3
6. If the barber, the pharmacist’s twin brother, is a young man, then the pharmacist cannot be an old man.
7. A window cannot be closed from the outside.
8. Even if he is dead, a man has only one skull, not two.
9. One could not yet take photographs in the time of Frederick the Great.