The three oil-producing countries Qatar, Romania, and Saudi Arabia were the finalists in long jump. Walking around, I heard three comments from three different persons, one from each country:

"Saudi Arabia got the Gold."
"Qatar ended in a higher place than Saudi Arabia".
"Romania was the worst."

A judge commented that whenever a person said anything mentioning his own country, he was right in his beliefs, but if he only spoke about other countries, he was wrong. I didn't know which person was from which country, but I could recognize the Romanian because of his occidental clothes. With help of the judge's comment, I could reason out the final standings. What were they?

(In reply to correct me if I'm wrong, please by Daymiris Gell)

The two phrases that are really the key to the whole puzzle, are "I [the narrator of the puzzle] could recognize the Romanian because of his occidental clothes" and "I could reason out the final standings." If the Romanian had made the second statement, which was "Qatar ended in a higher place than Saudi Arabia", the narrator would have known that that was false, since he recognized the Romanian from the clothes he wore. That means that either Saudi Arabia got Gold and Qatar got Silver or Bronze, or Saudi Arabia got Silver and Qatar got Bronze. The narrator knew that a non-Romanian said  "Romania was the worst," so that statement was false, and Romania got Gold or Silver. If the Saudi had said "Saudi Arabia got the Gold", then Saudi Arabia got Gold. If the Qatari said "Saudi Arabia got the Gold", then Saudi Arabia got Silver or Bronze. Thus there are two different medal standings that fit these possibilities: (1) Saudi Arabia got the Gold, Romania the Silver, Qatar the Bronze; (2) Romania got the Gold, Saudi Arabia got the Silver, Qatar the Bronze. Therefore, if the Romanian had made the second statement, the narrator would not have had enough to go on. He would have been puzzled by the two equally valid possibilities. Therefore, since he wasn't puzzled, but did deduce the final standings, the Romanian was not the speaker of the second statement. 

Posted by Penny on 2004-05-18 20:04:48