History Main / FoxChickenGrainPuzzle

* These types of games test [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Means%E2%80%93ends_analysis ''means-end analysis,'']] or the ability to set up sub-goals to reach an ultimate goal, even if those sub-goals appear contradictory to the ultimate goal. These type of logic games are useful in the world of artificial intelligence, where they're known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_problem "toy problems"]] and are used to test methodologies and algorithms. A similar game, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missionaries_and_cannibals_problem "missionaries and cannibals,"]] has been used in the field of A.I. to demonstrate problem representation.

* An UsefulNotes/AdobeFlash game has a more complex variant [[http://jayisgames.com/archives/2006/06/raft_iq_puzzle.php involving a raft, eight people and a convoluted set of rules]]. [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Good luck!]]

-->-- One [[HaveANiceDeath failure message]] for this puzzle in ''Blob Manager Demo'' for the UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh

[[folder:Card Games]]
* The first puzzle appears in ''TabletopGame/PerplexCity'', with a professor, a senior fellow, and a cocktail. The second shows up nearly verbatim.
[[/folder]]

* ''Series/DeathInParadise'': DI Goodman likens how the MysteryOfTheWeek of "[[Recap/DeathInParadiseS3E1DeathOfADetective Death of a Detective]]" episode was carried out to this puzzle. Fidel keeps trying to figure out the puzzle for the rest of the episode.

* ''Series/DeathInParadise'': DI Goodman likens how the MysteryOfTheWeek of the "Old Times" episode was carried out to this puzzle. Fidel keeps trying to figure out the puzzle for the rest of the episode.

'''Space Ghost:''' Of course. Now, the cow wants to transport Clarence across the river. But remember, the cow is on fire, and Clarence has no hands or bucket, so he has to untilize his hooks, ''[[MundaneMadeAwesome and the mighty power of his saxophone]]!''

* This forms the basis of the primary plot of the ''Series/BetweenTheLions'' episode "Farmer Ken's Puzzle", where Lionel attempts to solve the puzzle, here depicted as a computer game (though a cat replaces the fox). The pigeons try to give him advice, which causes him to fail the first two times, and after they give up and leave it alone for a while, his little sister, who they've been [[NotNowKiddo constantly brushing off as "too young" for the game]], solves it.

* This forms the basis of the primary plot of an episode of ''Series/BetweenTheLions'', where Lionel attempts to solve the puzzle, here depicted as a computer game (though a cat replaces the fox). The pigeons try to give him advice, which causes him to fail the first two times, and after they give up and leave it alone for a while, his little sister, who they've been [[NotNowKiddo constantly brushing off as "too young" for the game]], solves it.

* Parodied by animated short film [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-ROdRgRRsY "Rubicon" by Gil Alkabetz]]. As one viewer once commented: That wasn't a cabbage, that was a [[WhatDoYouMeanitwasntmadeondrugs peyote]]!

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''Manga/DrStone'' references this puzzle (with corn in place of the grain) when the protagonists find themselves in a similar situation of having to move everyone in their group across a rope line with a strict weight limit, while not allowing the villain they're holding prisoner to be alone with anyone he could escape from or talk into betraying the team.

* The puzzle appears in J.H. Brennan's (better known as author of the ''Literature/GrailQuest'' books) ''[[Literature/HorrorClassicGamebooks Dracula's Castle]]'', where you have to travel with a cat, a dog, and a mouse in a lift. However, the twist is that the cat can't bear to take the lift more than twice, meaning the puzzle is impossible and the correct "answer" is to get confused and give up.
* The knights and squires version turns up in the ''Series/TheCrystalMaze'' gamebook.

* The Creator/PiersAnthony novel ''Literature/WithATangledSkein'' has this near the ending, with the Missionaries/cannibals variant. The complication is that there are three women and three demons, and if the demons outnumber the women at any point, [[{{Squick}} the women will be raped]].

* Ian Stewart's popular-mathematics book ''The Magical Maze'' opens with this, as an example of a maths problem most people are familiar with. To make it a bit more interesting he frames it as the [[AlliterativeName Panther-Pig-Porridge puzzle]].

* In an episode of Creator/TheBBC's version of ''Series/{{The Office|UK}}'', Gareth and Tim are assigned to solve this puzzle as a problem-solving exercise. As always, Gareth complicates things by taking it literally...
-->'''Gareth:''' Get his wife to help.\\
'''Tim:''' He doesn't have a wife.\\
'''Gareth:''' All farmers have wives.\\
'''Tim:''' This one doesn't; he's gay.\\
'''Gareth:''' Well then, he shouldn't be allowed near animals, should he?

* ''Series/{{Mongrels}}'' references this in the first episode with Nelson the fox, his chicken "girlfriend" and a bag of grain they were eating. They solved it by knocking out the boat's owner and stealing it.

* One episode of ''Camp Cariboo'' has Tom pull this on Mark, using a fox, a goose, and a sack of corn.

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* This forms the basis of the primary plot of an episode of ''Series/BetweenTheLions'', where Lionel attempts to solve the puzzle, here depicted as a computer game (though a cat replaces the fox). The pigeons try to give him advice, which causes him to fail the first two times, and after they give up and leave it alone for a while, his little sister, who they've been [[NotNowKiddo constantly brushing off as "too young" for the game]], solves it.
[[/folder]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Poptropica}}'', you have to solve this puzzle on Nabooti Island. As a reward, you are told about a secret cave behind some grass where you can find a jewel.

* Naturally, various versions of this puzzle pop up in the ''VideoGame/ProfessorLayton'' series.

* ''VideoGame/CrusaderOfCenty'' has this puzzle in the witch's house but with a chicken, a caterpillar, and a flower. The caterpillar then decides to join your party to see the world. And it's a talking flower.
* A variation of this appears near the end of ''VideoGame/BrokenSwordTheSleepingDragon''; a murderer, a witness to his crime, and the brother of the murder victim must all cross the river to reach the murder trial. The victim's brother is analogous to the fox, the murderer is analogous to the chicken, and the witness is analogous to the grain.
* Part of the cockatrice sidequest in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' requires bringing the cockatrice Sassan across a river to meet a friend on the other side. Sassan is afraid of Nathyl (a tame wolf), and there's also a village boy named Arryl. The solution is to bring Nathyl to the other side, then bring Arryl over to play with Nathyl and keep him occupied, and finally bring Sassan over.
* An UsefulNotes/AdobeFlash game has a more complex variant [[http://jayisgames.com/archives/2006/06/raft_iq_puzzle.php involving a raft, eight people and a convoluted set of rules]]. [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Good luck!]]
* The obscure dating game ''VisualNovel/{{Sprung}}'' on the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS had a variation to this on Brett's story. At one point Brett will be asked to go to Sanctuary with Becky, where he will bring his buds Lucas and Danny while she brings Alex and Erica. The catch, however, is that Becky wants a calmer night, so she doesn't want any funny business ([[FridgeLogic nevermind that Sanctuary is a raving night club where the nameless other people not mentioned in the game are probably doing just that]]). The puzzle comes where Brett meets everyone but Becky at the front of the club and he has to get all of them inside one by one. However, if Lucas and Alex or Danny and Erica are left alone and Brett comes back to them later, he will catch them making out, leading to Becky to see this, her announcing the night was ''ruined'' and you getting slapped with a game over. The puzzle is extended further because it's not only a matter of getting everyone inside, but also a matter of keeping everyone happy which means a lot of shuffling out people whom are already fine inside (such as dragging Danny out because he gets panicked over the sight of too many people, or dragging Lucas out for pep talk). Further rules are also added as time marches on, including how the aforementioned couples ''can'' later be left alone without problems after an event happens where Brett talks them down, or how new pairings are made that ''can't'' be left alone without you interfering with them (such as how, at one point, Danny and Lucas will fight if left alone).
* Appears as a series of wood-inlay pictures on a puzzle box in ''VideoGame/NancyDrew: The Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon''. It uses a dog, a cat and a bird, presumably because a bag of grain would be hard to identify in silhouette. Nancy deduces the animals' starting side ''for'' you, from no clues whatsoever!
* In ''Website/PuzzleClubhouse'', a [[http://puzzleclubhouse.com/displaycontent?id=220 decorative fountain referencing the fox-chicken-grain puzzle]] won the popular vote, becoming a permanent part of Puzzle Clubhouse's landscaping.
* The first ''Midnight Mysteries'' uses the "jealous husbands" variant, involving two police officers, two sailors, two young boys, the player character, the boatman needed to transport the entire party across a river, and a boat that can carry a maximum number of three people, including the boatman. Aside from the boatman (not the player character, surprisingly) needing to be on the ferry at all times, the other rules are that the sailors must be under the watch of the officers, and the young boys must be accompanied by an adult (you or one of the policemen) at all times during the river crossing.
* ''Tower Core'', the fourth in the ''Core'' series of Flash games has five things you need to move from one chamber to another, with the field that suppresses them only active in one chamber at a time: The Zog-Beast will eat the Mog-Rat, the Glaw-Than fly will eat the Zog-Beast, the Muk-Tar plant will eat the Glaw-Than fly, and the cannister of radiation will kill the Muk-Tar plant.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''Webcomic/FullFrontalNerdity'' does it, with the [[http://ffn.nodwick.com/?p=338 Missionaries and Cannibals]] variant.

* ''Webcomic/BreakingCatNews'' [[https://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2021/05/30 has a strip]] where the four cats are trying to sleep together on the Man, but Lupin and Goldie can't be next to each other, Elvis can't be next to Lupin, and Puck would prefer not to be next to Elvis. Puck brings up the puzzle, and Goldie and him question why the farmer had a fox after their own situation is sorted.

* The Internet comedy duo [=BriTANicK=] used this as the starting point for one of their videos, wherein Brian asks Nick a number of brain teasers. Not that Brian cares about the answers; he's just obsessed with stealing Nick's Klondike bar, and the thought of Nick making out with his girlfriend.
* IT specialist site thedailywtf.com references the more complicated version with the bridge and four men [[http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Classic-WTF-Job-Interview-20-Now-With-Riddles!.aspx here]] as the way to not do a job interview when looking for an IT specialist. Their preferred answer: leave the slow one behind!

* Parodied by animated short film [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-ROdRgRRsY "Rubicon" by Gil Alkabetz]]. As one viewer once commented: That wasn't a cabbage, that was a [[WhatDoYouMeanitwasntmadeondrugs peyote]]!
* Creator/{{Toonami}}'s ''Intruder II'' special event begins with TOM and SARA discussing the puzzle with a fox, a chicken, and a cabbage. They're interrupted by the sensors finding a mysterious ship nearby that opens fire on the Absolution before they can discuss the solution.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls2016'' episode "Splitsville", Bubbles has to help a farmer get his goose, fox, and bag of seeds across the river. It starts out normal, then gets ridiculously complicated with the addition of nosy tourists, a [[DastardlyWhiplash Robber Baron]], the starting lineup of the Townsville girls' basketball team, Literature/SherlockHolmes, and the Raptor King. And to top it off, [[spoiler:at the end the farmer [[ShaggyDogStory realizes that his farm was on the ''other'' side all along]].]]
-->'''Bubbles:''' Why do you even need all these things in your farm?\\
'''Farmer:''' Listen, do you know of a better way to grow radishes?
* In ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekProdigy'', Janeway has the "cadets" do this as a training and team-building exercise... on the holodeck, with simulations of a real fox, chicken, and bag of grain. Zero gets on the right track by realizing that they're not forbidden from ''returning'' items across the river, but then someone lets the fox and the chicken stay on the same side and it all goes pear-shaped.

A StockPuzzle, subset of the InventoryManagementPuzzle. You are a farmer taking a fox (or a wolf), a chicken (or a goose), and a sack of grain to market ([[BellisariosMaxim don't ask why you're taking a fox to market]]) and you come across a river. The only way across the river is by a small boat, which can only hold at most you and one of the three items. Left unsupervised, the chicken will eat the grain or the fox will eat the chicken (however, the fox won't try to eat the grain, nor will the fox or the chicken wander off). What's the quickest way to get everything across the river?

A StockPuzzle, subset of the InventoryManagementPuzzle. You are a farmer taking a fox (or a wolf), a chicken (or a goose) and a sack of grain to market ([[BellisariosMaxim don't ask why you're taking a fox to market]]) and you come across a river. The only way across the river is by a small boat, which can only hold at most you and one of the three items. Left unsupervised, the chicken will eat the grain or the fox will eat the chicken (however, the fox won't try to eat the grain, nor will the fox or the chicken wander off). What's the quickest way to get everything across the river?

May also appear with different animals and vegetables, such as wolves, sheep and cabbages. (The version best known in the former Soviet Union, for example, has a wolf, a goat, and cabbage.) A "jealous husbands" (also known as cannibals and missionaries, or knights and squires) variant has three couples trying to cross a river with a two-person rowboat, but none of the men will allow his wife to be alone with either of the other men on either side of the river (or, cannibals cannot outnumber missionaries, lest the latter attacked and eaten; or each knight's squire is too afraid to stay with the other knights). This one can be solved in eleven steps.

* The first puzzle appears in ''TabletopGame/PerplexCity'', with a professor, a senior fellow and a cocktail. The second shows up nearly verbatim.

* In the Puzzle Planet from ''Skrulls vs. ComicBook/PowerPack'', the kids find a room with three alien critters with two who only want to eat one of the other critters and a pipe leading to another room that's only big enough to take one of the critters at a time. Katie figures out the back and forth method, opening the door to the next room after getting them all through the pipe.

* This puzzle is featured quite humorously in a Czech-language gamebook ''Norik'': You need to cross a river and you meet a farmer with a boat, a wolf, a goat and a basket of cabbage and need to help him get the three "items" to the other side of the river. When he returns back to get the goat, you must convince him to get you over the water first. Then, when he returns to finally get the goat, the wolf grows tired of not being able to eat the goat and eats the cabbage instead. Norik (your alter-ego) shouts at it and the wolf runs off, which also results in the rest of the cabbage being thrown into the river. As you hear the farmer shout profanities at you, you decide to not wait for him and go on. Later, you arrive at a farmhouse, where you could sleep, but decide not to after it turns out to be the farmer's house, when he runs after you, pulling (and strangling) the goat after him.
* The puzzle appears in J.H. Brennan's (better known as author of the ''Literature/GrailQuest'' books) ''[[Literature/HorrorClassicGamebooks Dracula's Castle]]'', where you have to travel with a cat, a dog, and a mouse in a lift. However the twist is that the cat can't bear to take the lift more than twice, meaning the puzzle is impossible and the correct "answer" is to get confused and give up.

* A variant of this turned up in ''VideoGame/{{Uninvited}}'', where if you didn't choose correctly between a small bird, a housecat and a snake, then one of the remaining animals would eat the third, and then it would ''slaughter'' you (the solution was to [[spoiler:take the bird, since the snake is too full to move after it's eaten the cat]]).
* Naturally, various versions of this puzzle pops up in the ''VideoGame/ProfessorLayton'' series.

* ''VideoGame/CrusaderOfCenty'' has this puzzle in the witch's house, but with a chicken, a caterpillar, and a flower. The caterpillar then decides to join your party to see the world. And it's a talking flower.

* The first ''Midnight Mysteries'' uses the "jealous husbands" variant, involving two police officers, two sailors, two young boys, the player character, the boatman needed to transport the entire party across a river, and a boat that can carry a maximum number of three people, including the boatman. Aside from the boatman (not the player character, surprisingly) needing to be in the ferry at all times, the other rules are that the sailors must be under the watch of the officers, and the young boys must be accompanied by an adult (you or one of the policemen) at all times during the river crossing.

* The Internet comedy duo [=BriTANicK=] used this as the starting point for one of their videos, wherein Brian asks Nick a number of brainteasers. Not that Brian cares about the answers; he's just obsessed with stealing Nick's Klondike bar, and the thought of Nick making out with his girlfriend.
* IT specialist site thedailywtf.com references the more complicated version with the bridge and four men [[http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Classic-WTF-Job-Interview-20-Now-With-Riddles!.aspx here]] as the way to not do a job interview when looking for an IT specialist. Their prefered answer: leave the slow one behind!

'''Sonny:''' What riddle? (''pulls curtain open, revealing a chicken, a coyote and a sack of corn'')

** In the same episode, Cletus asks Homer for help with getting a fox, duck and corn across, but then "the puzzle done worked itself out" when both the corn and the duck are eaten.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls2016'' episode "Splitsville", Bubbles has to help a farmer get his goose, fox and bag of seeds across the river. It starts out normal, then gets ridiculously complicated with the addition of nosy tourists, a [[DastardlyWhiplash Robber Baron]], the starting lineup of the Townsville girls basketball team, Literature/SherlockHolmes and the Raptor King. And to top it off, [[spoiler:at the end the farmer [[ShaggyDogStory realizes that his farm was on the ''other'' side all along]].]]

* Creator/CleolindaJones describes ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' thus:

->'''''RATS!''' Your goose is cooked!''
-->-- One [[HaveANiceDeath failure message]] for this puzzle in ''[[http://www.snake.net/software/mac/BlobMgr/ Blob Manager Demo]]''

* ''Website/AdventOfCode'' includes a more complex version of the "jealous husbands" variant as [[https://adventofcode.com/2016/day/11 2016 day 11]]. There are ''four'' floors with various chips (the "wives") and generators (the "husbands") scattered across them. Any chip that ends up together with any generator while not also on the same floor as its matching generator gets destroyed, failing the puzzle. You can take either 1 or 2 items with you (not zero or more than two), and you can only move one floor at a time. You have to move all items up to the top floor. Part 2 [[UpToEleven adds two extra chip/generator pairs]].