There were once three friends. Abe is a Knight, Bill is a Liar, and Carl is neither, having been brought up in a foreign country. (This means he can either lie or tell the truth depending on what he feels like.)

One day, the three were sitting on a bench when the king's herald stopped by to deliver a message to one of them.

He asked the man sitting on the left side of the bench:

"Who's that sitting in the middle? To which the man replied: "Why that's Abe".

He then asked the man in the middle directly:

"What's your name?" and got the answer "My name's Carl."

Confused, he asked the man on the right:

"Who is that sitting in the middle?" and was immediately told: "That's Bill, of course!"

Can you help the king's herald figure out who is who?

... Mr. Bill!!! Seriously, assuming knights don't lie, that is. If it were Abe, he'd have to say, "I'm Abe." If it were Carl, then Carl told the truth, but the other two lied, so Abe doesn't exist. Ergo, it must be Bullshit Bill, making the first man Crafty Carl and the last Honest Abe.

Posted by Lawrence on 2003-08-30 21:44:50