Like detective riddles? Then this one is for you.
A hen, a dog and a cat are stolen. Three suspects are arrested named Robin, Steve and Tim. The police are sure that each of them has stolen one of the animals but they don’t know who stole which animal.
Sherlock Holmes is appointed to identify and is provided with the following statements from the investigation.
Robin – Tim stole the hen.
Steve – Tim stole the dog.
Tim – Both Robin and Steve are lying. I neither stole hen, nor dog.
Sherlock is somehow able to deduce that the man who stole the cat is telling a lie and the man who stole the hen is telling truth.
So were you able to solve the riddle? Leave your answers in the comment section below.
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Answer:
Glance at the first and second statement again; they are contradictory. Both can be true together though. Also both of them cannot be false which means that Tim stole cat and his statement will be true. But it has been already deduced that the one who stole cat was telling a lie thus it can’t be possible.
Let us consider the situation again. It may be that Tim stole a hen or a dog. Assume that he stole hen. In such a case the statement of Tim will be false. But we know that the person who stole hen told the truth, thus it is contradicting our assumption and so cannot be correct.
Considering everything, now we can say with confidence that Tim stole the dog.
Now it means that the statement by Robin is completely false and the statement by Steve is true which depicts that the cat and hen are stolen by these two. Also we know that the one who stole hen is true and the one stealing cat is a liar. Thus we now know that Robin stole cat and Steve stole hen.
Hence we can deduct the following as our answer;
Robin Stole Cat
Steve stole Hen
Tim Stole Dog
Robin says “Tim stole hen”
Steve says “Tim stole dog”
Tim says “Liars. I stole neither”
We know cat-thief lied, hen-thief told truth.
Robin is hen-thief. Robin says Tim stole hen. Robin is lying and cannot be hen-thief.
Tim is hen-thief. Tim says other stole hen. Tim is lying and cannot be hen-thief.
So, Steve is hen-thief.
Steve is hen-thief. Hen-thief is true. Steve says Tim stole dog.
Tim is dog-thief.
Robin is cat-thief. Robin says Tim stole hen. Cat-thief is liar so Robin is lying. This works.
Thursday