A puzzle jug is a puzzle in the form of a jug, popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. An inscription typically challenges the drinker to consume the contents without spilling them, which, because the neck of the jug is perforated, is impossible to do conventionally.
Known inscriptions include:
Come drink of me and merry be.Come drink your fill, but do not spill.
Fill me up with licker (liquor) sweet / For it is good when fun us do meet.
Gentlemen, now try your Skill / I'll hold your Sixpence if you Will / That you don't drink unless you spill.
Here, Gentlemen, come try your skill / I'll hold a wager if you will / That you don't drink this liquor all / Without you spill and let some fall.
Famous quotes containing the words puzzle and/or jug:
“Scholars and artists thrown together are often annoyed at the puzzle of where they differ. Both work from knowledge; but I suspect they differ most importantly in the way their knowledge is come by. Scholars get theirs with conscientious thoroughness along projected lines of logic; poets theirs cavalierly and as it happens in and out of books. They stick to nothing deliberately, but let what will stick to them like burrs where they walk in the fields.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Twit twit twit
Jug jug jug jug jug jug
So rudely forc’d.
Tereu”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)