History Main / FoxChickenGrainPuzzle

* Appears as a series of wood-inlay pictures on a puzzle box in the NancyDrew story ''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 an episode of TheBBC's version of ''TheOffice'', Gareth and Tim are assigned to solve this puzzle as a problem-solving exercise. Gareth ends up overcomplicating things...

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

* One episode of ''ClassOf3000'' had Sonny put his class through this task as training for an upcoming concert. Tamika lampshades it:

[[quoteright:348:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/foxchickengrainpuzzle_8397.png]]

* The obscure dating game ''Sprung'' on the 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 more 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).

A StockPuzzle, subset of the InventoryManagementPuzzle. You are a farmer taking a fox, a chicken (or a goose) and a sack of grain to market ([[BellisariosMaxim don't ask why you're taking a fox to market]][[hottip:* :Maybe you are going to sell the skin, but your knife broke and you need to get a new one at market?]][[hottip:$ :[[CrazyPrepared Or to get it to eat the chickens of the other sellers, allowing you to sell yours without competition.]]]]) 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 [[CaptainObvious won't try to eat the grain]], nor will the fox or the chicken wander off[[hottip:* But the grain will, apparently]]). What's the quickest way to get everything across the river?

A StockPuzzle, subset of the InventoryManagementPuzzle. You are a farmer taking a fox, a chicken (or a goose) and a sack of grain to market ([[BellisariosMaxim don't ask why you're taking a fox to market]][[hottip:* :Maybe you are going to sell the skin, but your knife broke and you need to get a new one at market?]][[hottip:$ :[[CrazyPrepared Or to get it to eat the chickens of the other sellers, allowing you to sell yours without competition.]]]]) 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 [[CaptainObvious 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?

[[AC:MMORPGs]]

* CleolindaJones describes ''{{Twilight}}'' thus:

* 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 not to do a job interview when looking for an IT specialist. Their prefered answer: leave the slow one behind!

There's yet '''another''' variant called "Missionaries and Cannibals" where the poor missionaries get eaten if the number of cannibals are greater than or equal to theirs.

A StockPuzzle, subset of the InventoryManagementPuzzle. You are a farmer taking a fox, a chicken (or a goose) and a sack of grain to market ([[BellisariosMaxim don't ask why you're taking a fox to market]][[hottip:* :Maybe you are going to sell the skin, but your knife broke and you need to get a new one at market?]][[hottip:$ :[[CrazyPrepared Or to get it to eat the chickens of the other sellers, allowing you to sell yours without competition.]]]]) 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 [[CaptianObvious 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, a chicken (or a goose) and a sack of grain to market ([[BellisariosMaxim don't ask why you're taking a fox to market]][[hottip:* :Maybe you are going to sell the skin, but your knife broke and you need to get a new one at market?]][[hottip:$ :[[CrazyPrepared Or to get it to eat the chickens of the other sellers, allowing you to sell yours without competition.]]]]) 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 [[YouFailBiologyForever 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?

* Near the end of John Varley's ''Red Thunder'', Manny mentally compares the situation of saving several trapped people from the wreckage of a spaceship to this puzzle. As he arranges to get them out, he solves it in his head.

A StockPuzzle, subset of the InventoryManagementPuzzle. You are a farmer taking a fox, a chicken (or a goose) and a sack of grain to market ([[BellisariosMaxim don't ask why you're taking a fox to market]][[hottip:* :Maybe you are going to sell the skin, but your knife broke and you need to get a new one at 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 [[YouFailBiologyForever 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?

'''Examples:'''
* A variant of this turned up in the classic [=MacVenture=] game ''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, this puzzle pops up in ''ProfessorLayton and the Curious Village'', in both the "fox, chicken, and grain" version and the "cannibals and missionaries" variant (with foxes and chickens).
** ''ProfessorLayton and the Diabolical Box'' features the third variant, with a puzzle where you have to figure out the fastest way to get four horses of different speeds from point A to point B.
* ''{{Runescape}}'' has one of these, completing a similar task for Temple Knight Sir Sisyphus.
* ''{{Zork}} Zero'' has you collect a fox, a chicken and an earthworm, all to be taken across a swamp and used in "Borphbelly Stew".
* ''CrusaderOfCenty'' (known as ''Soleil'' in Europe and ''Ragnacenty'' in Japan) for the SegaGenesis[=/=]Mega Drive uses this puzzle, but with a chicken, a caterpillar, and a flower.
* Appears near the end of the third ''BrokenSword'' game.
* One episode of ''ClassOf3000'' had Sonny put his class through this task as training for an upcoming concert. Tamika lampshades it:
--->'''Tamika:''' Everybody knows that riddle!
--->'''Sonny:''' What riddle? (Pulls curtain open, revealing a chicken, a coyote and a sack of corn)
** Eddie and Philly Phil manage to get through it in fewer than seven steps due to Eddie bribing the coyote with a $100 bill to not eat the chicken.
--->'''Philly Phil:''' What's a coyote gonna do with a hundred dollars?
--->'''Eddie:''' [[LooneyTunes If cartoon memory serves right, he's gonna use it to buy a pair of Acme Rocket Skates.]]
* This was apparently the entire concept of an in-universe video game on ''{{Between the Lions}}'' [[spoiler:with the fox replaced with a cat for no known reason]]. Not much replay value there...
* In an episode of TheBBC's version of ''TheOffice'', Gareth and Tim are assigned to solve this puzzle as a problem-solving exercise. Gareth ends up overcomplicating things...
-->'''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?
* 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' on the other side of 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 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 that farmer's house, when he runs after you, pulling (and strangling) the goat after him.

* Subverted in ''Beauty and the Geek''. The puzzle included a rowboat, a sack of grain and a toy chicken and fox. The solution was to take them all at once since toy animals don't eat each other.
* Parodied in a ''{{Dilbert}}'' strip featuring the question asked to an immoral job interviewee, whose proposed solution is to take out insurance on the chicken, eat it, then blame the fox.
* CleolindaJones describes ''{{Twilight}}'' thus:
-->Yeah, it's like, Bella wants to be a vampire but she doesn't want to be a vampire before she's had sex as a human, and Edward doesn't want her to be a vampire but he wants to get married, but Bella doesn't want to get married unless she can be a vampire, but Edward won't have sex with her until they get married, and then you put the fox and the grain in the boat and you leave the goose back on the riverbank.
* Just recently showed up in the 20th season ''[[TheSimpsons Simpsons]]'' episode "Gone Maggie Gone". Homer is trying to get across a river with Santa's Little Helper, Maggie and a jar of candy-coated rat poison.
** In the same episode, Cletus asks Homer for help with getting a fox, chicken and grain across, but then "the puzzle done worked itself out" when both the grain and the chicken are eaten.
* In a subquest in ''FinalFantasyXII'', in order to make one of the cockatrice go back home, you must transport the cockatrice, a wolf and the boy across a river.
* Referenced in ''[[{{XKCD}} xkcd]]'' [[http://xkcd.com/589/ some time ago]].
* ''FullFrontalNerdity'' does it, with the [[http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/ffn/index.php?date=2009-04-15 Missionaries and Cannibals]] variant.

* The cannibals and missionaries version is mentioned in ''UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'', with wolves and sheep.
* 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.
* An 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]]. [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Good luck!]]
* The obscure dating game ''Sprung'' on the 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 more 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).
* The free children's MMO ''{{Poptropica}}'' has a puzzle involving this.

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* ''{{Mongrels}}'' references this in the first episode with Nelson the fox.

This is an ancient puzzle, with the oldest known example being found in Propositiones ad Acuendos Juvenes, which dates back to the late 9th century AD.

A more complicated version, but which operates on much the same principle, involves a barrier (usually a bridge), four people who all move at different rates, and some item that is required in order to cross the barrier (most often a flashlight). The puzzle is to get all the people across in under a specified amount of time, which seems to be too short. Probably the most well-known version of this is:

-->The Question: How can all four men cross the bridge in 17 minutes?
-->The Answer: [[spoiler:1 and 2 cross, 1 (or 2) returns, 3 and 4 cross, 2 (or 1) returns, 1 and 2 cross.]]

There's yet ANOTHER variant called "Missionaries and Cannibals" where the poor missionaries get eaten if the number of cannibals are greater than or equal to theirs.

* ''CrusaderOfCenty'' (known as ''Soleil'' in Europe and ''Ragnacenty'' in Japan) for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive uses this puzzle, but with a chicken, a caterpillar, and a flower.

* One episode of ClassOf3000 had Sonny put his class through this task as training for an upcoming concert. Tamika lampshades it:

--->'''Sonny:''' What riddle? (Pulls curtain open, revealing a chicken, a coyote, and a sack of corn)
** Eddie & Philly Phil manage to get through it in fewer than seven steps due to Eddie bribing the Coyote with a $100 bill to not eat the chicken.

* Was apparently the entire concept of an in-universe video game on ''{{Between the Lions}}''[[spoiler: With the fox replaced with a cat for no known reason]]. Not much replay value there...

-->'''Tim:''' This one doesn?t; he?s gay.
-->'''Gareth:''' Well then, he shouldn?t be allowed near animals, should he!
* 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' on the other side of 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 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 that farmer's house, when he runs after you, pulling (and strangling) the goat after him.

* Parodied in a {{Dilbert}} strip featuring the question asked to an immoral job interviewee, whose proposed solution is to take out insurance on the chicken, eat it, then blame the fox.

* Just recently showed up in the 20th season ''[[TheSimpsons Simpsons]]'' episode "Gone Maggie Gone." Homer is trying to get across a river with Santa's Little Helper, Maggie and a jar of candy-coated rat poison.

* Referenced in [[{{XKCD}} xkcd]] [[http://xkcd.com/589/ some time ago]].
* FullFrontalNerdity, with the [[http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/ffn/index.php?date=2009-04-15 Missionaries and Cannibals]] variant.
* Appears as a series of wood-inlay pictures on a puzzle box in ''[[NancyDrew The Last Train To Blue Moon Canyon]]''. Uses a dog, a cat, and a bird, presumably because a bag of grain would be hard to identify in silhouette.
** Nancy deduces which side the animals started out on ''for'' you, from no clues whatsoever!

* internet comedy team BriTANicK used this as the starting point for one of their videos, wherein Brian asks Nick an of brainteasers. Not that he cares about the answers, he's just obsessed with stealing Nick's Klondike bar, and the thought of Nick making out with his girlfriend.
* A flash 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.]] [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Good luck!]]
* The obscure dating game Sprung on the DS 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 more 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).
* The free children's MMO {{Poptropica}} has a puzzle involving this.

* {{Mongrels}} references this in the first episode with Nelson the fox.
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<<|StockPuzzle|>>

* A variant of this turned up in the classic [=MacVenture=] game ''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 can't move after it's eaten the cat]]).

* The free children's MMO [[http://www.poptropica.com/ Poptropica]] has a puzzle involving this.

* ''Crusader of Centy'' (known as ''Soleil'' in Europe and ''Ragnacenty'' in Japan) for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive uses this puzzle, but with a chicken, a caterpillar, and a flower.

-->The Question: How can all four men cross the bridge in 17 minutes?