Puzzler of the week

[Scott MacLean]

This week's puzzler:

Once upon a time there lived a king who wished to find the wisest man in the realm to be his assistant. He summons the three wisest men to his court and he administers the following test:

He sits them in a circle, facing each other and he says "I'm going to put either a red hat or a white hat on each of your heads."

He proceeds to place a red hat on each of their heads.

Obviously, they can see each other, but there are no mirrors in the room so they can't see what's on their heads. He says "If you can see a red hat, raise your hand." They all raise their hands. Then he says, "If you can tell what color hat you have on, stand up."

They all look at each other. Nobody moves. Finally, one guy stands up.

He announced, "I'm wearing a red hat."

How did he know?

Last week's puzzler:

A fellow's driving across the desert from Salt Lake City to Janet Reno, Nevada. He happens to look in the rear view mirror, and says, "Yikes!" He realizes he's in urgent need of a haircut. So, he gets off at Exit 321, which is between Winnemucca and Elko.

He finds himself in beautiful downtown Horsetown, Nevada. Where there are, of course, two barbershops.

He strolls past barbershop number one and looks in the window. There are no customers in the shop. It's kind of messy. Even the barber looks kind of messy. He's unshaven, he's got a rumpled shirt on, there's hair on the floor, and his haircut is lousy.

The guy thinks, "Maybe I should check out the other joint." So, he moseys along and arrives at barbershop number two and looks in that window. It looks terrific. It's nice and clean. The mirrors are clean and shiny, there's no hair on the floor. The barber looks neat and well groomed. He's a got the good haircut.

The question is, which barbershop does he select for his haircut?

Last week's puzzler answer:

Why does he go to the first barbershop, the one that was messy, and disgusting, and lousy haircut? He goes there because it's clear that each barber gives the other one his haircut.