“Riddle Me This”
By Dr. Bill Burch

Once upon a time a man was making a journey. He carried with him a fox, a goose, and a basket of grain. (Don’t ask me WHY the person in question took such a strange assortment of things on a trip—he just did.) He came to a wide river that could only be crossed by a boat. Due to the size of the boat, however, he could only take one item across at a time.
The man faced quite a dilemma. The fox would eat the goose if he left them alone. Yet the goose would eat the grain if left unsupervised. So how could the man transport the fox, the goose, and the grain across the river safely? There is NOT a trick answer to the riddle. For example, the fox didn’t swim across the river and the goose didn’t fly over the water. The answer is found at the end of the article.
When you read the explanation to the riddle, you will probably be amazed at the simplicity of the solution. Oftentimes, obvious answers are not so obvious until someone else reveals the solution. Then we strike our heads and exclaim, “Why didn’t I think of THAT?”
For instance, one day a man was changing a flat tire alongside the road. He removed the lug nuts and placed them in the hub cap. Then he proceeded to change the tire. In his haste, his elbow hit the hub cap and sent the lug nuts flying into a drain. As he puzzled over what to do next, his six year old son stuck his head out the window and said, “Daddy, why don’t you use one lug nut from each of the other tires?” The father expressed his amazement at the boy’s solution. His son replied, “Daddy, I may be young, but I’m not stupid!”
Here’s yet another riddle. I have two American coins in my hand that equal thirty cents—but one of them is NOT a quarter. So what two coins do I have? Give up?
SPOILER ALERT: Here is the solution to the first riddle. The man took the goose across the river. He returned to the other side and then brought the fox across. Then he took the goose BACK across the river to the original side. THEN he took the grain across and left it with the fox on the far side. Finally, he went back and brought the goose across the river AGAIN. It’s easy when you know the answer!
SPOILER ALERT: Here is the solution to the second riddle. I have two coins in my hand that equal thirty cents. One of them is NOT a quarter, but the OTHER coin IS a quarter! So the answer is a nickel and a quarter.
There are a variety of morals to these stories. One lesson learned would be to never travel with a fox, goose, and grain when a small boat is involved. A second is to beware of a preacher when he talks about money! A third is that solutions to riddles are always obvious once we know the solution. Oftentimes the only way to discover the right answer is to think outside the box and look at a problem from a totally different perspective.
I once heard an unusual management principle which stated: “Give your hardest job to your laziest person, and s/he will find the easiest way to do it!” Perhaps a corollary would read: “Give your insolvable problems to your most creative people, and they will find a way to solve them.” Our world faces many problems that seem insurmountable; but when I see the faces of our high school and college graduates during May, I take comfort in the belief that these young people will discover answers to the questions that we haven’t even learned to ask yet.