There are four criminals who are to be punished, but the judge sets a condition that if they can solve a puzzle they will be set free, and if they are unable to solve the puzzle they will be hanged. So the criminals agreed to this condition.
The four criminals line up on some steps and they all face the same direction, but a wall separates the fourth man from the other three criminals.

So this is how it looks:
Man 1 can see men 2 and 3.
Man 2 can see man 3.
Man 3 can see none of the others.
Man 4 can see none of the others.

The criminals are give hats to wear, two white hats and two black hats, but the men do not know what colour hat they are wearing, but as soon as they are certain to what color hat they are wearing they are to shout out the colour of their hat.
But they can not turn around, take their hats off or talk to each other

Who is the first man to shout out and why?

Man 2 will shout that he has a white hat on his head.

This is how the answer is worked out:

Man1 is seeing one white hat (Man2) and one black hat (Man3) in front of him.
Hence Man1 is unsure whether he himself has on a black or white therefore he keeps quiet.
( If Man 1 had seen two black hats in front of him, then Man 1 would have shouted out he's wearing a white hat himself)

Man2 sees only one black hat ( which is Man3 ) in front of him.

Man2 also has realized that only if he wears a white hat then Man1 would have kept quiet.

Therefore Man2 confidently shouts out "White" and he is right one !

Your clever Sara, i didn't have a clue how to solve this, so left it and was waiting for someone to post an answer! Well done for trying, as were still left to find out if this is the right answer or not.

Sara, man2 could be black and man3 could be white, right?

-F

Yes, farce, man 2 could he wearing a black or a white hat depending on how you make the deductions for what man # 1 can see and what man 2 could see from his side.

I honestly have NO idea how you solved that!! I've played many games like this in high school. usually, I draw it out and then it makes sense, but this one's hard because we were never told who was wearing what color. Weird.. how did you figure it out? Like.. i read what you wrote but I still don't get it?? haha I'm silly and slow at stuff like this!

I just guessed randomly myself ;-)

-F