Hint to Riddle #12: Three Men and Red & Blue Hats
12. Inside of a dark closet are five hats: three blue and two red. Knowing this, three smart men go into the closet, and each selects a hat in the dark and places it unseen upon his head.
Once outside the closet, no man can see his own hat. The first man looks at the other two, thinks, and says, "I cannot tell what color my hat is." The second man hears this, looks at the other two, and says, "I cannot tell what color my hat is either." The third man is blind. The blind man says, "Well, I know what color my hat is." What color is his hat?
Once outside the closet, no man can see his own hat. The first man looks at the other two, thinks, and says, "I cannot tell what color my hat is." The second man hears this, looks at the other two, and says, "I cannot tell what color my hat is either." The third man is blind. The blind man says, "Well, I know what color my hat is." What color is his hat?
It's difficult to give too many clues without walking you through the answer.
Person A, the first man, does not know what colour hat he's wearing, this is not an insignificant piece of information. You have to think under what circumstances would he know what colour hat he had on. Since he doesn't know, we know that not to be the case.
Having eliminated a certain scenario we have only certain other scenarios left, we continue the deductive process until only one scenario is left.
Where next?
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