Criminal in a jail

[Guest]

Pardon me if it's been posted.

The world's smartest thief is caught and put in a jail. At the back of the jail room are two dark tunnels. Guarding the room are two cops. One of the tunnels will lead the thief to safety, the other to death as soon as he steps in. One of the cops will tell only truth and the other only lies, the thief doesn't know which cop lies and which is honest. He also doesn't know which tunnel will save him, which will kill him.

He is given the chance to ask a single question to any one of the cops (he can pick who) and use the answer to find the tunnel to escape. The smart guy asks a question to one of the cops, the cop points to a tunnel, he escapes through the other one.

The riddle is "What did he ask?"

[kingofpain]

An honestant swindlecant problem

[Guest]

yeah, it's the same problem as the execution problem.

[Guest]

Yeah, it's a good puzzle.

A friend of mine told me this puzzle 2 yrs ago. He said that a teacher of his in high school had given this puzzle as an extra credit assignement and promised to raise the grade of the pupil that solves it by a whole grade at the end of the semester.

I think he said that he was the only one who was able to solve it. I had found 2 solutions but the host, Roockie has found 3.

Look up: Honestants and Swindlecants III.

[Guest]

I think it was something like.

he asked one cop:

"what would the other cop say if I asked him which door was safe?"

Whichever door the cop points to would be the death door.

If you ask the liar then he is pointing to the opposite of what the truth teller would actually point to.

If you ask the truth teller he would point to where the liar would say is the safe door, obviously the death door.

[rookie1ja]

already posted ... check Honestants and Swindlecants III.

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