Question: Four men - Abraham, Bobby, Clinton and Denial - are standing in a straight line.
1. One man is fair, handsome and unscarred.
2. Two men who are not fair, are each standing next to Abraham.
3. Bobby is the only man standing next to exactly one handsome man.
4. Clinton is the only man not standing next to exactly one scarred man.
Who is fair, handsome and unscarred?
Answer:
Clinton is fair, handsome and unscarred.
From (2), both the men standing next to Abraham are not fair. Also, exactly one man is fair, handsom and unscarred. Hence, there are two cases:
Case 1 :: ? (N, ?, ?) : Abraham (Y, Y, N) : ? (N, ?, ?) : ? (?, ?, ?)
Case 2 :: ? (N, ?, ?) : Abraham (?, ?, ?) : ? (N, ?, ?) : ? (Y, Y, N)
Note the representation - Name (Fair, Handsome, Scarred). "Y" stands for Yes and "N" stabds for No. Abraham (Y, Y, N) means Abraham is Fair, Handsome and Unscarred.
It is clear that either Abraham or the man at the extreme right is fair, handsome and unscarred.
From (4), it is deduced that Clinton is standing next to unscarred man and each of the other men standing next to exactly one scarred man.
Case 1 :: Clinton (N, ?, N) : Abraham (Y, Y, N) : ? (N, ?, Y) : ? (?, ?, Y)
Case 2 :: ? (N, ?, Y) : Abraham (?, ?, Y) : ? (N, ?, N) : Clinton (Y, Y, N)
From (3), Bobby is the only man standing next to exactly one handsome man. But in Case 1, Clinton is standing next to exactly one handsome man. Hence, Case 1 is not possible and Case 2 is the correct one.
Case 2 :: ? (N, ?, Y) : Abraham (?, ?, Y) : ? (N, ?, N) : Clinton (Y, Y, N)
Again from (3) and (4), there are 2 possibilities as shown below.
Case 2a :: Denial (N, N, Y) : Abraham (?, N, Y) : Bobby (N, N, N) : Clinton (Y, Y, N)
Case 2b :: Bobby (N, N, Y) : Abraham (?, Y, Y) : Denial (N, N, N) : Clinton (Y, Y, N)
Thus, Clinton is fair, handsome and unscarred. Also, Abraham may be either fair or not fair.