New Puzzler, 9/9/96: Toilet Water

Ray: Our friend Ronnie was asked by his brother to take care of his house while he was on vacation. He said, "I'm going to be gone for a couple of weeks. Go water the plants and make sure no one has broken into the house." And he says, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, don't worry." So his brother takes off for vacation, and he goes over the first day and he checks it out. And while he's there he waters the plants. They look all right. And he's on his way out when he says to himself, oops, a haircut is in need. So he goes to the bathroom and then leaves. He returns to the house about 11 days later to water the plants.

Tom: Which are now dead.

Ray: And he enters the house, waters the plants, and as he's getting ready to leave he hears water running. And he says I wonder where that is coming from. And he finally goes to that bathroom. And, indeed, the toilet has been running all that time. Running for 11 days. And he flicks the handle a few times and, of course, everything is fixed. And, again, he's ready leave when he notices that there is water on the floor.

Tom: On the floor?

Ray: On the floor. The toilet has been leaking. In fact, he estimated there were several gallons on the floor. But after his examination of the premises, he was unable to determine what was wrong with the toilet. Now his brother calls the plumber, and he determines that there as nothing wrong with the toilet or the plumbing what-so-ever. Where did the three plus gallons of water come from?

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]