32

A simple puzzle of my own creation:

The heartless man threw down his shovel and laughed as his wife fell into the hole.

There is a very simple explanation as to what is happening here, can you tell me what it is?

I think the answer should be obvious once figured out and solvable without hints, but to avoid any fear of it being too open-ended I'll add a few hints.

Hint 1:

This is a common situation that likely happens many times a day.

Hint 2:

The man loves his wife, but he is still heartless.

Hint 3:

He couldn't have thrown the shovel if he wasn't so heartless.

Bergi
  • 287
  • 1
  • 10
dsollen
  • 1,491
  • 1
  • 11
  • 21

4 Answers4

40

I think the man and his wife...

are playing a card game, specifically Hearts

Hint 3:

The wife led with hearts $\color{red}{\heartsuit}$. If the husband had hearts he would have been required to follow suit. However, since he is heartless, he can discard a shovel (spade ${\spadesuit}$ - even better if it is the Queen, as this will penalize her with 13 points)

Hint 2:

It's just a friendly card game. He is laughing because he knows he's going to win, but still loves her.

Hint 1:

I'm sure a decent number of couples play Hearts on any given day...

And the original riddle:

Mostly explained in Hint 3 above, but since she is leading with hearts, that is probably the only suit she has left, which means she'll be collecting a lot of penalty cards at the end of the game, and therefore "falling in the hole"

But...

The joke's on him, as she is about to shoot the moon!

ferret
  • 2,655
  • 1
  • 14
  • 30
  • Yep you got it. Though It could apply to any number of other games. – dsollen Feb 21 '18 at 23:01
  • 1
    Brilliant answer!! – ABcDexter Feb 22 '18 at 11:23
  • 2
    I don't understand the "his wife fell into the hole". I've never heard this term before (even though familiar with the context explained in this answer). Is there another meaning I'm missing? – Steve Bennett Feb 23 '18 at 00:02
  • 1
    @SteveBennett I think “dig yourself into a hole” is a more commonly used expression. A hole is just a metaphor for a bad situation that is getting progressively worse (dug deeper) and thus can be fallen into. https://english.stackexchange.com/a/380166 – ferret Feb 23 '18 at 02:28
  • "Dig yourself into a hole" is an expression. "Fall into the hole" isn't. – Steve Bennett Feb 23 '18 at 03:17
  • @SteveBennett The metaphor of a hole can still be understood. Spades aren't commonly called shovels either, but any riddle will have a stretch in it. If you think it's a bad riddle then give it a downvote. – ferret Feb 23 '18 at 03:26
  • Yeah, I did. For such a short riddle, I think every word or phrase has to mean something. It doesn't work for me to have the last part of the sentence not really mean anything, especially when it links logically with "shovel". – Steve Bennett Feb 23 '18 at 03:31
  • @SteveBennett fair enough! Anyways I think a lot of very basic puzzles get a lot more attention than they should, because of the “hot network posts” sidebar. I certainly didn’t expect to get 31 votes for this answer. – ferret Feb 23 '18 at 03:38
  • @SteveBennett when someone has a negative score in a card game they are said to be in 'the hole'. Hearts, the example here, doesn't give negative points. However, many other games that could be discribed, spades, haus, 500, bridge, and many other betting/trick taking games allow one to fail to make a bet resulting in loosing the points equal to the bet. So presumably the last trick was taken by the husband preventing the wife from making her bet and leading to her loosing enough points to fall into 'the hole', ie negative points. – dsollen Feb 23 '18 at 14:38
  • Yeah, and in betting games such as poker, being "in the hole" means overall you have lost money for the night. But that's still not "into the hole", and none of those things actually apply here in what is apparently the correct answer. – Steve Bennett Feb 25 '18 at 05:35
22

Not sure about the shovel yet, but is the wife

falling into the toilet because her husband didn't put the seat down?

J Chase
  • 492
  • 2
  • 5
5

I guess I have a partial answer:

They are playing cards. The man does not have any heart-cards and is therefore playing a shovel (spades) card. If he had harts he had to follow suit. He laughs because this situation puts him in front/his wife is losing. I guess it's a characteristic situation for some specific game.

NashVio
  • 337
  • 1
  • 3
0

They are a kind of "prank couple" and he made some booby trap against her...

mpasko256
  • 1,437
  • 7
  • 14