Lion ->

<-

Goat ->

<- Lion

Cabbage ->

<-

Lion ->

Why doesn't this work?

Lion ->

<-

Cabbage ->

<-

Goat->

Not allowed to leave the lion and the cabbage together

You're leaving the lion alone with the cabbage while you fetch the goat. The lion will eat the cabbage.

The goat will eat the cabbage?

The goat does not eat cabbage in this set up. That is the trick

It's actually not explicitly stated:

"I am not allowed to leave the cabbage and lion alone together, and I am not allowed to leave the lion and goat alone together."

It says nothing about the cabbage and the goat. It would not be unreasonable to infer that you aren't allowed to leave the cabbage and the goat together, based on how goats normally behave.

Of course, that makes the puzzle unsolvable, which is why humans will catch onto it pretty fast.

I got:

Goat ->

<-

Lion ->

<- Goat

-> Cabbage

<-

-> Goat

The Lion immediately eats the cabbage in step 1.

Oops, I had "goat eats cabbage" in my head.

To be fair the puzzle never explicitly states anyone would eat anything. Perhaps the lion simply can't stand the thought of being alone with a cabbage and kicks it in the river.

The key is understanding the constraints and what would be an acceptable amount of bending whilst keeping to the spirit of the game.

It's never explicitly stated that you can't take things back with you so that's your "aha" loophole. Throwing all three of them across at the same time because it turns out you're a giant wouldn't be in the spirit of the game.

Thanks for the reply but this makes no sense to me. So the goat eats the lion then? And who eats the human? Who does the human eat? How would ANYONE solve this riddle if they don’t have a way to know that the lion is vegan? I mean how would anyone come to the conclusion that the lion eats the cabbage with 0 background other than the name of the animals (that imply that lions are carnivorous and goats vegan)?

The lion is an omnivore, it eats both the cabbage and the goat. The goat is for whatever reason, not interested in eating the cabbage.

We know the lion will eat the cabbage because the riddle states the lion and cabbage cannot be left alone, and and idea of a cabbage eating a lion is a ridiculous notion.