WHICH CUP IS THE POISON IN?
You probably know the Princess Bride story of the guy who puts the poison in either cup (which one is it?) and it turned out to be in BOTH cups, the guy had spent years building up immunity to it.
Well not this time. This time, the poison involved is very deadly, derived from the fangs of a desert asp and distilled in cyanide and hydrochloric acid. It will kill on the first sip, without doubt.
You are the guardian of an ancient vault, full of priceless relics. A thief comes, with a proposition. You reach for your blade, to find it gone! Oh no! You only have two options: play the thief's game, or step aside and let the thief go.
Before you ask, those are your only options. Agree to the proposition or let the thief into the vault. There are other measures of protection: the relics will be safe and thief taken care of, but you will certainly be fired.
If you should choose to accept: you will close your eyes while the thief pours the poison into either of two cups (which have just water in them now). Of course, the thief could also pour the poison into both, or neither. Then you choose from the two cups, and you drink your cup, and (if you are still alive) the thief drinks after you do.
If the thief put the poison in neither, he retreats after cleaning everything up, and nobody believes your story.
* Afterwards, if you are dead and the thief alive, the thief uses your keys and information to pilfer the vault while getting around the other defenses, thus successfully stealing the relics. The vault owner is at least grateful that you tried to stop the thief.
* If you are alive and the thief dead after the drinkings, you become a celebrated vault guardian!
* If both are dead, you are valiantly declared a hero (posthumously), in stopping the thief.
1. Do you accept or decline the thief's proposition?
2. If you were the thief, what would you do?
The Real Problem
Same ordeal, but there are three substances involved. The original poison (kills instantly), a diluted poison (gagging for 5 minutes, then death) and an antidote (can be drinken in those 5 minutes to save against the diluted poison). The antidote is set onto the table between the two of you. If you should accept the thief's proposition, you will close your eyes and he will apply the poisons. He could put no poison at all (but he won't, he wants this theft badly- remember, the thief doesn't want you to decline either, he wants to win your keys and blueprints and stuff), or the strong poison into both, or the diluted poison into both, or one strong one diluted, or one strong one nothing, or one diluted one nothing. Then you pick a cup, you drink, then someone drinks first, then the next person drinks. Whoever drinks first and gets the diluted poison can grab for the antidote first. The questions 1&2 from Problem 1 apply to the following scenarios:
1) the thief drinks first
2) the thief drinks first, but you get to see how many dosages of the various poisons have been used and then you can still choose to decline
3) you drink first, but only 0 or 1 TOTAL doseages of the instant poison are allowed
4) both drink at same time, 50/50 chance for the antidote if both drink diluted poison
5) you decide who drinks first (or if both drink at same time) AFTER the thief has already put the poisons in
what are your answers for 1-5? decline or accept? (and you can say what you would do if you were the thief as a bonus, if you want ;D)
also, if you accept #2, what's your secondary choice (accept/decline) for the following scenarios:
1) 1 drop of diluted poison used
2) 1 drop of instant poison used
3) 2 drops of diluted poison used
4) 2 drops of instant poison used
this is meant to be a launching board for similar puzzles ;D I want to see my idea grow via other minds who can think of other clever uses of this general scenario idea
