A Lawyer named Protagoras teaches law for a hefty fee. He advertises his skills as a teacher by offering his students a contract, which states that they do not have to pay him until they have won their first case. If the student loses their first case, then they don't have to pay Protagoras at all.

One student of Protagoras sees a loophole, takes the course and fininshes it. After that, the student avoids arguing any cases. Since the student has not yet won his first case, he avoids paying Protagoras.

Protagoras feels cheated, and sues the student for his fee. When the case comes to trial, the student represents himself. If the student loses the case, then by the terms of their original agreement, there is no fee for the course. If the student wins the case however, then, since its the student's first case, there will be a fee. (But, of course, winning the case means that the student doesn't have to pay the fee, while losing it means that the fee must be paid.)

Will the student be obliged to pay Protagoras' fee or not?

(In reply to Goat's Solution by Goat)

I made a mistake.  The original agreement was that if the student lost his first case, he never has to pay.  Therefore, if the student loses, he must take a case, and pay if he wins.  However he has now taken a case, and lost, so he doesn't have to pay.  The answer to this puzzle is the student must pay if he wins but doesn't have to pay if he loses.  The battle in the court would be fascinating because both sides would be trying to lose.  However, the student is obviously a fool, because he didn't have to represent himself, and he did.  If he didn't represent himself, then if his lawyer won, he would never have to take a case, and if his lawyer lost, he could take a case and then fight to lose.  Since he apparently never intends to take a case anyway, the damage to his reputation wouldn't matter, and he could represent a friend who would agree to lose in some trivial matter, so that there would be no danger of the student getting sued for not trying to win.  Since the student is an idiot, the savvy teacher will probably succeed in their courtroom conflict and the student will win the case and be forced to pay.

Posted by Goat on 2004-08-23 19:29:00