This is a generalisation of "The three sages"

On a hot summer day, n equally bright philosophers, tired from all that philosophising, were napping in an orchard. A prankster came by, and painted all of their faces black with charcoal.

When the philosophers woke up, they started laughing at the others... until they suddenly realised all of their faces must be black!

How did they come to that conclusion?

The quesion speaks of equally bright philosophers thereby implying they were all unbiased to each other . if even one of them did not have his face colored black , the others would definitely have not laughed at him and in fact question over this difference, thus my conclusion

Posted by prince on 2004-04-14 11:52:40