Mr and Mrs Brown are a little strange. When they are awake, their judgement about everything is absolutely perfect. When they are asleep however, it is exactly the opposite.

That is, if Mr Brown is awake and thinks that something is true, then it will always be true. But if he were to be sleeping and dreaming something to be true, it would always turn out to be false.

Once, late at night, Mr Brown was under the impression that Mrs Brown is asleep. At that very point in time, Mrs Brown was also thinking about her husband. Was she under the impression that he was asleep or that he was awake?

There are two possibilities :

Mr Brown could be asleep. If he was, he would be wrong in thinking Mrs Brown was asleep, so she would be awake. When she's awake, she is always correct, so she will think that Mr Brown is asleep.

OR

Mr Brown could be awake. If that was the case, then Mrs Brown would be asleep, and would wrongly think that Mr Brown was asleep.

Either way, Mrs Brown would be under the impression that Mr Brown was asleep.

Posted by Lewis on 2003-06-03 07:02:07