A terrible crime has been committed and the police round up the usual suspects. During the interrogation of the four men the following accusations and statements are made:

Anderson said "Brimmers did it."
Brimmers said "Dodge did it."
Carter said "I didn't do it."
Dodge said "Brimmers lied when he said I did it."

If only one of the four men was untruthful, which man committed the crime?

Given the givens, the query may be answered correctly that  Brimmers is the suspect that committed the crime. Though, logically, it is not adamantly conclusive that Brimmers is the one who was untruthful.
There is an implication that only one man committed the crime, yet it is still possible that the terrible crime was committed by more than one person. If more than one suspect had jointly committed the crime, it can be logically determined that both Brimmers and Dodge had done it, with Dodge being the suspect who had made the false statement. In such a case, providing the answer "Dodge" to the query would be equally correct as "Brimmers". If it was given (and not just implied) that only man had committed the crime, then it can be deduced that Brimmers alone not only committed the crime, but was the only suspect whose statement was untruthful.

Posted by Dej Mar on 2015-04-08 23:14:27