Thursday, October 29, 2009

Whom To Trust?

You invite two gardeners for a price estimation on picking up all the autumn leaves in your yard. You neighbor, seeing you with them outside, smiles and trying to be polite but still helpful, tells that one of these gardeners is a liar and another is truthful. Hearing this, one gardener says, "I am a truthful one, he is a liar." The second gardener replies, "Yes, he is telling the truth about being truthful, but I am not a liar." Which one is which and why? (this puzzle is adopted from The Super Smart Super Puzzle Book #2 by A. Salny)

Submit your answer on our Family Puzzle Marathon site. Solve three puzzles and get a prize!

4 comments:

Kim said...

I've got two approaches:

(A) The first gardener is telling the truth, and the second gardener is half-true, half a lie (so his sentence in its entirety is a lie). (If the second gardener were telling the truth, then the his statement that the first gardener was telling the truth would be a lie, so it's self-contradictory)

(B) When the first gardener says "he" he means the neighbor, not the other gardener. Both gardeners are telling the truth.

I like solution (B) better.

Maria said...

Two solutions! I like it. You can choose which one you prefer depending on whom you trust more - your neighbors or your gardeners.
Another point for Kim.
Expect a new puzzle tomorrow.

Kim said...

:-) But what was the answer you were expecting? I like the idea of the neighbor being the liar. It's the out of the box solution.

Maria said...

The solution I was expecting is the first one. Second gardener is lying as he is telling that both gardeners are truthful. But the second one is a very interesting alternative. Love it!

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