This verbal puzzle is reproduced with permission from Instant Brainpower by Brian Clegg (© 1999, all rights reserved)

One solution is that only three of the four horses are his, so he only needs to shoot three to make sure that none of his horses remain alive. A second is that one of his horses was already dead of the terrible disease that was about to claim the others - hence his need to shoot them. A third is that the white horse was a chalk carving and had never been alive. There are more possibilities too.

Apart from the creative exercise in coming up with a solution, there is an interesting lesson here. We are conditioned from an early age to expect a single right answer to a problem. Often in reality there are many potential right answers, something that those who depend on creativity and knowledge management forget at their peril.

Copyright © Creativity Unleashed Limited 2006
Last update 01 April 2005

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