[Illustration]
This puzzle must have struck many readers as being absolutely impossible.
The jester said: "I had, of a truth, entered every one of the sixteen
gardens once, and never more than once." If we follow the route shown in
the accompanying diagram, we find that there is no difficulty in once
entering all the gardens but one before reaching the last garden
containing the exit B. The difficulty is to get into the garden with a
star, because if we leave the B garden we are compelled to enter it a
second time before escaping, and no garden may be entered twice. The
trick consists in the fact that you may enter that starred garden without
necessarily leaving the other. If, when the jester got to the gateway
where the dotted line makes a sharp bend, his intention had been to hide
in the starred garden, but after he had put one foot through the doorway,
upon the star, he discovered it was a false alarm and withdrew, he could
truly say: "I entered the starred garden, because I put my foot and part
of my body in it; and I did not enter the other garden twice, because,
after once going in I never left it until I made my exit at B." This is
the only answer possible, and it was doubtless that which the jester
intended.