The Kosmala Blog

Here is a riddle I heard recently that I thought I would share.

Once upon a time in a faraway land there lived a beautiful princess who had just reached the age to marry. Unfortunately for her, there were three eligible bachelor knights, and she just couldn’t decide which one to pick! So her father (the king) decided to put a test before them, with the winner winning his daughter’s hand… in marriage (not her actual hand).

He brought all three knights to the courtyard and showed them six hats. They were all identical in every way except for color. Three of them were red, and three of them white. He then told the knights that he was going to blindfold each one and place one of the six hats upon each of their heads. After the knights realized the king was serious and not smoking something, they consented, and each were blindfolded. Then the king placed one hat on each of their heads and removed the blindfolds. Each knight immediately realized that the hat had been placed on his head so that he could not see it! But he COULD see the hats on the other two knights’ heads.

The king called out and asked a question to all three knights. He said, “raise your hand if you can see a red hat.” Immediately all three knights raised their hands. Next the king said, “If you know what color hat you are wearing, come forward, declare it and you win the contest!”

At first none of the three knights moved or came forward. Then, after a minute or so, one knight came forward and declared “I am wearing a red hat!” He was correct and so won the daughter’s hand.

So the riddle is: how did the knight know he was wearing a red hat?

A few disclaimers:

1. This isn’t a trick question or some play on words. There is a rational, logical answer to the problem.
2. The knights’ position, demeanor, timing of the raising hands, or any other “implied” situation isn’t important. Everything you need to know is stated in the story.
3. The winning knight didn’t guess, he was positive his hat was red.

And a small hint to get you going: it may help to think about the color of the other two knights’ hats.

Let me know if you solve the riddle or want some help with it. It’s a good one!