The Umbrella Problem

This is a rather mind-boggling problem from the 1947 Eureka magazine.

“Six men, A, B, C, D, E, F, of negligible honesty, met on a perfectly rough day, each carrying a light inextensible umbrella. Each man brought his own umbrella, and took away—let us say “borrowed”—another’s. The umbrella borrowed by A belonged to the borrower of B’s umbrella. The owner of the umbrella borrowed by C borrowed the umbrella belonging to the borrower of D’s umbrella. If the borrower of E’s umbrella was not the owner of that borrowed by F, who borrowed A’s umbrella?”

Answer.

See the Umbrella Problem for solutions.