riddle

[newtron]

There is a house.  In this house, all the windows are south facing.  A bear walked by this house.  What color was the bear?

[Jackanory]

White!  It was a polar bear because the house is at the North Pole!

(This is fun!)

[jenstar]

Actually, it doesn't necessarily follow that the bear has to be a polar bear or that the house has to be at the north pole. You could build a house anywhere in the world and only have south-facing windows. You just don't put windows in the other walls.

[Jackanory]

So it could be a brown bear then?  Or maybe black. . . or, judging from a particular quiz that's doing the rounds at the moment, PINK !!

[bernardo]

The correct answer is that there is not enough information given in the question (as jenstar explained).  In fact, there is no house at the North Pole, and any house built there would be unstable - both in terms of the foundations on which it is built (sea ice) - and in terms of its location (it would drift a few metres away from the North Pole within a few years).  In any case, it is highly unlikely that a polar bear would go anywhere near the North Pole, as its livelihood depends on hunting at the edge of the ice where the ice is thin.  As such, the most likely answer is that it is probably a brown bear walking past an unusual house of the type suggested by jenstar.

[Bangkok]

A better version of the question (overlooking the sensible point Bernardo made for the sake of an interesting question) is 'a hunter walks a mile south and sees a bear.  He chases the bear for a mile east and shoots and wounds the bear. The bear ran a mile north, where the hunter found he was back in his camp and it had been ransacked by another bear.  What colour was the bear that ransacked the camp?

[Jackanory]

I can't 'bear' it, Bangkok10120, tell us the answer PLEEEEEASE!!