When Zablon asked how the last dance went, he got information from the four different people. Just like last year, the four people (Epotram, Forgam, Golkam, and Holdram) decided to mix up what they wore again, and together these four wore red, blue, green, and white of something. However, this year the four friends got tired of dancing earlier and each dropped out from dancing at a different time, such that only one of them made to the last dance. When Zablon asked four people about the last dance, each person told what he knew about what was asked. One of them was a liar; every one of his statements was a lie.

Z: What do you know about the person that was in the last dance?
A: I know the person with the white shirt wasn't in it. The person with the white shirt was the one that stopped right after the person with the red shirt.
Z: What else did you notice?
A: I know the person with the red shirt wore green suspenders.

Z: What do you know about the person that was in the last dance?
B:I know he wore blue suspenders, or that might have been the person that stopped first, I'm not sure. I do know that I looked at the people dancing when the person with the white shirt stopped, and there wasn't a person at all there that was wearing a red tie.
Z: What else do you know?
B:I know the person with the red tie didn't stop directly before the person with the red shirt. I remember Epotram wore only one thing that was red. Actually, I remember that two different people, the person with the white suspenders and the person with the white shirt, were talking to each other about the fact that nobody wore more than one thing that was red.

Z: What do you know about who stopped dancing last?
C: I know the person that stopped dancing second had something blue on. This person stopped dancing directly before or after Forgam. This means Forgam didn't stop dancing last.
Z: What else do you know?
C: Everyone liked to wear white for this, since it was snowing outside, and this meant nobody wore more than one white thing. Forgam eventually volunteered that the others could wear white things and he would not wear anything white.

Z: What do you know about who stopped dancing last?
D: I remember seeing Epotram, the person with the green shirt, and the person with the red tie, all three of them watching that person.
Z: What else do you know?
I know Golkam wore a white tie, but didn't wear anything blue.

(Solving notes: When B says "there wasn't anyone there at all wearing a red tie", he includes people outside the four people that the solution pertains to. If he's lying, you can't infer anything from that statement.)

(Note: When figuring the "lies" (where the inverse of everything that person says is true), don't count "story" elements. For example, when B says "I also know the person with the white suspenders and the person with the white shirt were talking to each other", if he was lying, it means the person wearing the white suspenders also wore the white shirt. The idea that B could be lying merely because these two people actually didn't talk to each other even though the person with white suspenders wasn't the person with the white shirt is disallowed.)

(In reply to Solution contd. by John)

John: "If this is totaly wrong, then lie to me and tell me its right. I don't think my ego could take the hit."

John, be not overly disturbed at these flooble exercises. Keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, and unassuming; the friend of justice and godliness; kindly, affectionate, and resolute to your devotion to duty. Strive your hardest to be such a man as Philosophy would have you to be. Reverence God, succour your fellow-mortals. Life is short, and this earthly existence has but a single fruit to yield - holiness within, and selfless action without. Be in all things SilverKnight's disciple; remember his insistence on the control of conduct by reason, his calm composure on all occasions, and his own holiness; the serenity of his look and the sweetness of his manner; his scorn of notoriety; and his zeal for the mastery of facts; how he never dismisses a subject until he had thoroughly looked into it and understood it clearly; how he suffers unjust criticisms without replying in kind; how he is never hasty, and no friend to tale-bearers; shrewd in his judgements of men and manners, yet never censorious; wholly free from nervousness, suspicion, and over-subtlety; how easily satisfied he is in such matters as lodging, bed, dress, meals, and service; how industrious, and how patient; how, thanks to his frugal diet, he can remain at work from morning till night without ever attending to the calls of nature until his customary hour; how firm and constant he is in friendships, tolerating the most outspoken opposition to his own opinions, and welcoming any suggested amendments; what reverence, untainted by the smallest trace of superstition, he shows to God. Remember all this, so that when your last hour comes, your conscience may be as clear as his.

Posted by Penny on 2004-02-05 16:30:23