This is a great puzzle. If you haven't tried it, please put some effort first before reading this solution. Had your go and couldn't figure it out? Look down at you own risk of spoiling the fun.

Let's start with a hint:

The queen's announcement was the tipping point. Let us consider that there was only one couple in the village. Then, when the queen announces that someone has been unfaithful, the wife immediately realizes that it must be her husband as there is only one couple, she kills him the very same day. Poor guy.

Still couldn't figure it out?

Now let's say there are two couples. When the queen makes the announcement, both the wives know that the other husband has been unfaithful, but don't know if their own has been or not. Now here starts the fun.

If only one out of two husbands is cheating.
Then, one wife will know that the other is faithful, so there is only one cheating man! The lying cheating scumbag that is his husband! So she must kill him the very same day.

But we know that every man cheats on his wife
That means, both wives will know that the other's husband cheats, but, if only one husband is cheating, there has to be one murder on the very first day. When there are no murders on the first day, it leaves only one conclusion in the minds of both wives after one night and nobody is killed, since, there is at least one cheating man(according to the queen), and there is not only one cheating man, there must be two cheating men. So, both wives kill their husbands on the second day!

Now can you find the answer for 3 men?

Yes, that is right, after the second day, both wives figure that if there are two cheating men, then same as before, their wives will kill them on the second night. Since no murders happen on the second day, there must be three cheating men, and hence, all men must die on the third day.

You've set things out in such an absurdly confused way, that it's not a riddle at all. More like a confused rant.

You made pronoun errors, you assumed facts not a part of the original scenario, and made unsupported assertions aplenty.



The core story. Assumes a queen, and a "village" with only one couple, AND that "unfaithful" refers to a man screwing around on his wife, and not a queen failing in her duties, or a wife screwing around on her husband, or any other interpretation of "unfaithful."

Assumes women are required to murder husbands on suspicion alone.



Introduction of a same sex couple to the story, out of nowhere.

All the shifting versions of the "facts" fail to include who the "unfaithful " person is being "unfaithful" with.

Has it ever occurred to you that English might not be the OP's First Language?

Things that makes little sense.

But let me see if I understand this.

1 couple = 1 wife 1 husband.

Evidence of cheating on wife = wife kills husband immediately, as there's no one else to suspect.

2 couple = 2 wife 2 husband
Evidence of 1 person cheating 2 wives wait for the other wife to kill their husband immediately.

If the other wife doesn't kill the other husband immediately, then that means her husband "must" be cheating, so the husband must die on seeing that the other isn't dead.

3 couple = 3 wife 3 husband.
Evidence of 1 person cheating.
All wives wait to see if the other wives kill their husband on first day, suspecting at least one other spouse is the cheater.
Second day, since no one has died, each wife has a second couple to throw suspicion on, having eliminated one of the 2 couples, but no one is killed.

Third day, since no other wife has killed their husband, only one husband left to believe "must" have done it, so each wife blames their own husband, again since no other wife killed their husband the last two days, then all 3 kill their husband.


I'm not sure that's really a puzzle so much as trying to prove faulty deductive reasoning.

Why do all marriage cheating stories begin with emphasizing the husband as the cheater? While going through the divorce I visited numerous counseling sites looking for help. One thing of interest came to my attention: on average (statistically) 91% of married men who have affairs have that affair with a married woman.

If out of 100 husbands who are unfaithful there are 91 wives who are having affairs with these 100 husbands. So this raises a question:

Either a few married women are sleeping with a boat load of men or more married women are less faithful than they claim.