The Mysterious Kiss

During the Nazi occupation of France, four passengers were travelling in a train compartment from Paris to Marseilles. It was a rather odd company--a young and very good-looking girl, a dignified-looking old lady, an officer of the German occupation forces, and a middle-aged Frenchman of indefinite profession. None of them knew any of the others, and no conversation was started while the train was speeding south. When the train rolled into a tunnel, the electric lights in the compartment failed to function, and for several minutes the four passengers were submerged in complete darkness.

Suddenly, there was a sound of a kiss, followed almost immediately by the sound of the hard impact of somebody's fist against somebody's face. When the train came out of the tunnel, the original position of the passengers was unchanged, but the German officer has a large bruise under his eye.

"Serves him right", thought the old lady. "Here is a true French girl who will defend herself against the aggressiveness of these Germans! I wish we had more such brave and chaste girls."

The young French girl thought "this German officer has strange taste. Instead of kissing me, he choose to kiss this old bag. I cannot figure it out!"

The German officer, holding his hand against his injured eye, could not figure out the situation either. The best explanation he could make of what had happened was that the Frenchman had tried to kiss the young girl, and that she had struck out in the darkness and accidentally hit him in the face.

What do you think the Frenchman thought and what actually happened?

Answer to the Puzzle

The Frenchman was smarter than Germans and was very proud of himself. He had just kissed his own fist, and then smashed it into the German's face.

Back to Puzzle