[Guest]

This is not mine, I'm suprized I couldnt find it, its quite well known, but here goes...

A man and his best friend walk in to a restaurant. They both order seagull soup. The man takes a sip of the seagull soup. He pulls out a gun and shoots his best friend. He then walks out of the restaurant and shoots himself.

I couldn't possibly leave you with just that, however...

CLUES

1) The man had tasted seagull soup a few days earlier, but it tasted different.

2) The man, his best friend, and his wife were on a shipwrecked island (charted, however) awaiting help. He was asleep. His best friend and wife stayed up talking in the ocean water. When he woke up, he was saddened to hear from his best friend that his wife had been caught in the current, and drowned.

3) The best friend did, however, manage to make some seagull soup for him and the man.

Why did the man shoot the best friend, and then shoot himself?

So sorry if it is on here in another form!

Edited May 30, 2008 by Georgie

[Guest]

Well I thought I had it until I read the clues.

As he lifts the spoon to his mouth he sees a reflection in the spoon of his friend wielding a gun. He realizes that his friend is trying to kill him because he's been having an affair with his wife. So before he can be shot, he pulls the trigger on his friend. As he flees the scene he feels so guilty over the affair and for killing an innocent man - his best friend at that - that he takes his own life.

However, this can't be exactly right given your clues.

[itachi-san]

when they were in the ocean the friend made the man eat his wife and called it seagull soup. Now that the man knows what seagull soup should taste like, he knows he ate his wife... bang bang both dead

[Guest]

he could taste his wifes perfume in the soup...so knowing that his friend had killed her he shot him. then so distraught over his wifes death, shot himself???

probably a litttle off, did the best friend have time to build a restaurant???(and come up with a viable seagull soup recipe) while stranded?

[Guest]

it was saltier the second time because the wife had spent alot of time in the ocean and her meat was salty

[Guest]

One quick question though... were they shipwrecked on a charted isle or what is a shipwrecked island(charted or uncharted)?

[Guest]

lol, itachi-san got it pretty much, there can be three reasons why he would kill himself, what would these be?

[itachi-san]

lol, itachi-san got it pretty much, there can be three reasons why he would kill himself, what would these be?

1)b/c he ate his wife

2)b/c he killed his friend

3)b/c he liked the taste of his wife better than the seagull soup and realized he was a cannibal

[Guest]

I think that was better than the real answer!

I've been told it was...

guilt from eating the wife,

the fear of going to jail

and the fact that he was probably insane as he has been on an island with no civilization apart from this random restaurant? haha

[Guest]

Without the clues I think this answer makes more sense.

After taking a sip of soup, the best friend told the man that that he poisoned the soup (for whatever reason). Maddened with anger, the man shot his best friend. Then, he shot himself rather than dye a painful death by poison.

The clues add so much information that they make it a very different riddle.

[Guest]

The friend had actually killed the other guy's wife and then made wife soup. The latter suspected this, so he went to arestaurant with his friend and ordered seagull soup. It didn't taste the same, so his suspicions were confirmed, and, furious, he shot the killer of his beloved. This'd make a great film!

It's simple.

[soop]

The friend had actually killed the other guy's wife and then made wife soup. The latter suspected this, so he went to arestaurant with his friend and ordered seagull soup. It didn't taste the same, so his suspicions were confirmed, and, furious, he shot the killer of his beloved. This'd make a great film!

It's simple.

Ok, I think it's easy too - and I got the same answer - but then why does he kill himself? Either

a) He walks out of the restaurant and sees his wife

b) He realises that he's lost his wife and his best friend

c) He realises that it was necessary, but his best friend killed his wife instead of him (which would have been easier, with him being asleep). Therefore his best friend took extreme measures to save him - something he would not have the gall to do, and thus saved two of them, rather than condeming all three. Not only this, but he took pains to protect him from this.

I like C the best. He's basically just shot the person who cares about him most in the world.

Edited May 30, 2008 by soop

[soop]

I have to say though, it's only the last part that has any sort of puzzle element. This is one of those riddles with an ephemeral kind of answer. It could be anything, and some of the answers thus far have been far more plausable than the intended answer.

[Guest]

The soup was poisened, they would both have suffered a terrible death therefore he was putting his friend and himself out of their misery.

Perhaps the soup was made from the wife...ew!!!!

[soop]

The soup was poisened, they would both have suffered a terrible death therefore he was putting his friend and himself out of their misery.

Perhaps the soup was made from the wife...ew!!!!

[Guest]

Georgie,

There was one similar on here but somehow got deleted - it had Quails on the menu ???

By the time i Solved it it ahad disapeared - totally strange!

[Guest]

The man felt that the soup tasted differently, and so he killed his "friend" because he thought that he had in fact eaten his own wife.

But he only kills himself OUTSIDE the restaurant, not inside. Guilt, fear of prison, etc, all make much sense, but he could have killed himself inside the restaurant. So, why outside? (guess it yourself, or check spoiler 2)

As he gets out of the restaurant, he sees a big sign, that he hadn't noted before saying something like "Chef's unique seagul soup - Our seagul soup doesn't taste like any other you might have tasted before..."

And so he realizes that he was unfair with his friend.

[Guest]

How about this solution:

The man had a suspicion the friend killed the wife. The friend made real seagull soup. The friend slipped poison into the husband's soup at the restaurant. The husband realized the different taste was poison. He then shot the friend, out of revenge and for poisoning him. Went outside and shot himself out of grief, and not wanting to die a horrible death from poison.

Well sound reasonable?

[Guest]

ok heres what i think happend, the waitress had poisened the soup. The waitress was the man's lover, and she found out he was cheating on her who was the man's bestfriend. She also had poisened the man's soup so he would die to. The man relized that she put the poisen into the suppen and he knew that she would be caught and sent to jail so he shot his friend and himself so she would not be sent to jail.

this shows i've been watching to many crime shows.

[Guest]

1. The man's wife died in the island in an accident.

2. The man and his best friend were out of food.

3. His best friend cooked his wife's body and cheat him that was seagull soup.

4. They survived because of the "seagull soup"

5. When they were back, he found out the real seagull soup taste different and realized he was eating his wife's body.

7. He killed his best friend and himself.

[Guest]

As the man tasted the seagull soup he noticed on the corner of his eye the nervousness of his friend. That, combined with the differing taste of the soup to that he had on the island suggested him his friend had cooked her wife...

He kills his friend for this and leaves the restaurant with a soggy and bitter taste in his mouth after he glances at a newspaper laying on the floor indicating that his wife had been found alive.

It all makes sense now: his friend had told the truth. He cannot bear with the guilt and ends with his life.

[Guest]

He kills his friend for this and leaves the restaurant with a soggy and bitter taste in his mouth after he glances at a newspaper laying on the floor indicating that his wife had been found alive.

It all makes sense now: his friend had told the truth. He cannot bear with the guilt and ends with his life.

As the man tasted the seagull soup he noticed on the corner of his eye the nervousness of his friend. That, combined with the differing taste of the soup to that he had on the island suggested him his friend had cooked her wife...

The friend told him that his wife had drowned, not that she had disappeared. Therefore, she cannot reappear.

They say that a missing person causes more grief than a disappeared person, because if the person died, you can cry your tears and let it go. So maybe the wife never died, she just disappeared, but the friend told the wife's husband that she died, so that he'd suffer less. In that case, it'd make sense for the wife to miraculously reapper, but would the man really kill himself at the sight of his wife?

Edited May 30, 2008 by samuelpt

[Guest]

I think there are some inconsistencies in a couple of the answers provided. I tryed to

- If the friend killed the wife and then presented it as seagul soup, he'd make every effort to convince the friend to go for another soup, because he would fear that his lie would be found out.

- The wife drowned, or so was told by the friend. Maybe he lied, maybe he didn't; it would make sense to lie if he himself had killed his friend's wife; it doesn't make much sense to lie if she had died of natural causes.

- The man killed the friend in the restaurant, but he killed himself outside.

[Guest]

someone told me this was one of the hardest riddles they had heard, I got it straight away...

Hopefully this one wont disappear lol