You talk to six people, and they each give you five statements. Your job is to figure out which statements are true and which are false.

Alan says:

1. David's final statement is true.
2. Frank told more lies than David.
3. Bob always tells the truth.
4. My second statement is false.
5. Eric told more truths than lies.

Bob says:

1. Eric lied at least once.
2. Alan told more lies than David.
3. Frank's second statement is true.
4. I always tell the truth.
5. Chuck told more lies than truths.

Chuck says:

1. Bob told more lies than I did.
2. Alan told more truths than lies.
3. Eric always lies.
4. David's third statement is true.
5. Frank lied exactly once.

David says:

1. Alan lied at least twice.
2. Eric told more lies than Alan.
3. Bob told more lies than truths.
4. Chuck always lies.
5. Frank's third statement is true.

Eric says:

1. Chuck always lies.
2. My fourth statement is true.
3. Frank told more lies than Bob.
4. I tell more truths than lies.
5. Frank lied exactly twice.

Frank says:

1. Alan told more lies than Bob.
2. Eric's first statement is false.
3. Alan told more lies than truths.
4. Bob only lied once.
5. Eric always lies.

Given that no two people told the truth the same number of times, which statements were true and which were false? Got this puzzle from graylabyrinth.com.

Solved through typical trial and error. I started by assuming that the first statement was true and luckily everything pretty much worked out from there. The interesting one is that all of Bob's statements are all true except for his fourth one, "I always tell the truth". Anyway the solution is...

Alan told 2 truths (statements 1 & 4)
Bob told 4 truths (statements 1, 2, 3 & 5)
Chuck told 1 truth (statement 3)
David told 3 truths (statements 1, 2 & 5)
Eric only told lies
Frank only told the truth

Posted by fwaff on 2003-03-04 02:45:47