This famous riddle begins with a man walking into a bar and asking for a glass of water. Instead of serving him, the bartender suddenly points a gun at him. The man then says “thank you” and leaves. Why?
The answer is that the man had hiccups.
He asked for water because he hoped it would stop them. The bartender recognized what was happening and chose another common hiccup remedy: giving the man a sudden fright.
The shock of seeing the gun scared him enough that his hiccups stopped. Once the man realized what the bartender had done, he no longer needed the water, thanked him, and left.
The odd behavior makes sense only after you realize the water request was about hiccups rather than thirst.
