This Simple Puzzle Stumped A Man For 10 Years Before He Solved It...With A Little Help

They might not exist much these days outside of museum gift shops, but for generations of students, these seemingly impossible 3D puzzles were plenty frustrating during class periods. So you could imagine the patience this Japanese man must have demonstrated to wrestle with this simple (and thus, simply infuriating) puzzle for ten long years.

At 73 years old, it’s possible he wouldn’t have another 10 years on this Earth to solve the puzzle, so he called in some reinforcements from a TV show.

The host of the show wrestles with the item for about 30 seconds before declaring it “unsolvable” and turning it over to a college physics professor, who assures the audience and the man that it can “definitely be done.”

That said, he’s slow to arrive at the solution.

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Which is to say, he fails to arrive at a solution. But he refers them to so someone who may be able to help them. So they move on to a magician, who fails to solve but doesn’t fail to delight. Then they move on to their next possible salvation.

The fun here is as much in the journey as it is the actual solution, and by the end, out of curiosity and empathy, you’re rooting for someone, anyone, to solve this poor man’s decade-old puzzle.

But without giving too much away, here’s the look on the man’s face by the end of their journey:

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