Riddle

A place where beginners can participate, ask questions, and post their views. However, beginners typically ask a lot of questions about sources, tricks, books, and so on. In fact, all magicians are interested (or should be) in the provenance of tricks, ideas, and related matters. This department will service these needs.
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Riddle

Postby Guest » March 8th, 2005, 10:00 am

A little while back I read about a relatively common riddle here. It was the one where a traveler gets to a crossroad and each way leads to a very different place...usually 1 way is heaven and the other is hell and each road is guarded by an individual. One tells the truth and the other lies. There is 1 question you can ask of either which would give you the answer as to which road led where. Could any of you help me with the question. Thanks.

Jim Maloney_dup1
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Re: Riddle

Postby Jim Maloney_dup1 » March 8th, 2005, 10:13 am

Ask one man which road the other man would say leads to Heaven. The opposite road is the actual road to Heaven.

-Jim

Guest

Re: Riddle

Postby Guest » March 8th, 2005, 11:26 am

Thank You

Jonathan Townsend
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Re: Riddle

Postby Jonathan Townsend » March 8th, 2005, 12:29 pm

Originally posted by merlou:
A little while back I read about a relatively common riddle here. ...usually 1 way is heaven and the other is hell and each road is guarded by an individual...
The heaven or hell thing is new, and hardly common. The riddle is a chestnut and one early version had you meeting someone at a fork in the road, and only knowing that if they are Spartan they will tell the truth, yet if Cretan, will lie.

If anyone knows which road actually leads to heaven... let the rest of us know please. It seems the road to hell is easily identified because it is well paved with good intentions ;)
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time

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Re: Riddle

Postby Guest » March 8th, 2005, 1:50 pm

FYI:

Me thinks Racherbaumer published a variant of this riddle in Magic Mag a few years ago?

Rock are you out there?

Am I mistaken?

Guest

Re: Riddle

Postby Guest » March 8th, 2005, 6:46 pm

Harry Lorayne - Secrets of Mindpower

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Q. Kumber
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Re: Riddle

Postby Q. Kumber » March 9th, 2005, 12:04 am

If you like riddles here is an ancient one posed by the fishermen of Crete to some unfortunate guy who drove himself demented trying to unsuccessfully solve it, eventually killing himself.

It is not a trick riddle. The answer makes perfect sense.

If you already know the answer please don't post it before Friday 11th March to give those who like to puzzle over riddles a chance to exercise their little grey cells. Otherwise I'll post the answer on Saturday.

Here it is:

"What we caught we threw away, what we didn't catch we kept".

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Re: Riddle

Postby Philippe Billot » March 9th, 2005, 12:48 am

Regarding the riddle posed by Merlou, there is a good application in Apocalypse, Vol 1, N6, June 1978 by Gerald Kosky entitled To Tell The Truth, but I'm (practically) sure that this riddle is 2000 years old

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Re: Riddle

Postby Richard Forster » March 9th, 2005, 8:55 am

If you are interested in these type of puzzles you should try one of the books by Raymond Smullyan. The books generally introduce a mathematical concept by a puzzle route, but the first third of most of the books is concerned with "liar / truth-teller" puzzles.

"The Lady or the Tiger", "What is the name of this book" and "Alice in Puzzleland" are the most accessible.

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Re: Riddle

Postby Guest » March 9th, 2005, 9:26 am

Originally posted by Richard Forster:
If you are interested in these type of puzzles you should try one of the books by Raymond Smullyan. The books generally introduce a mathematical concept by a puzzle route, but the first third of most of the books is concerned with "liar / truth-teller" puzzles.

"The Lady or the Tiger", "What is the name of this book" and "Alice in Puzzleland" are the most accessible.
Wonderful recommendation! Smullyan's books are great, and I was just about to suggest them myself. As an aside, "Doomo" aka Tony Miller, and the charming Rosie, his boss, have a wonderful magazine called "Channel One", for those of you who don't know it. And, they recently lured Mr. Smullyan into the spider's web. He contributed some material for publication, (yes, he's interested in Magic!), that makes for fun reading. Search for this, it is worth a peek...

Best, PSC

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AMCabral
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Re: Riddle

Postby AMCabral » March 9th, 2005, 9:32 am

This riddle can also be seen in the movie Labyrinth.

-Tony

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Re: Riddle

Postby Curtis Kam » March 9th, 2005, 10:36 am

And Barrie Richardson, in Theater of the Mind, describes his use of this puzzle with three or more participants, each of whom is holding an object in either their "truthful hand" or their "lying hand". Apparently, large audiences can be held spellbound watching you find the object by running through this puzzle repeatedly.

"It slayed 'em at the last Mensa meeting, I tell ya!"

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Q. Kumber
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Re: Riddle

Postby Q. Kumber » March 12th, 2005, 12:30 am

Originally posted by Quentin Reynolds:
If you like riddles here is an ancient one posed by the fishermen of Crete to some unfortunate guy who drove himself demented trying to unsuccessfully solve it, eventually killing himself.

It is not a trick riddle. The answer makes perfect sense.

Here it is:

"What we caught we threw away, what we didn't catch we kept".
And the answer: Fleas

PeTEr Mkn
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Re: Riddle

Postby PeTEr Mkn » March 26th, 2014, 3:49 pm

ask the sex of each guard on both doors,
figure this

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Riddle

Postby Richard Kaufman » March 26th, 2014, 5:22 pm

What?
Subscribe today to Genii Magazine

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mrgoat
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Re: Riddle

Postby mrgoat » March 26th, 2014, 5:24 pm

Richard Kaufman wrote:What?


spammer I imagine. he'll make a few posts and then drop the spam links.

MJE
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Re: Riddle

Postby MJE » March 26th, 2014, 10:52 pm

To get to the other side?

-MJ

Bill Mullins
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Re: Riddle

Postby Bill Mullins » March 27th, 2014, 1:46 am

Twenty bucks, same as in town.

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Re: Riddle

Postby Pete McCabe » March 27th, 2014, 2:16 pm

PeTEr Mkn wrote:ask the sex of each guard on both doors,
figure this


I believe the idea is, if you want to know whether the guards tell the truth or lie, ask what sex they are. You'll be able to tell immediately. Or you could ask how many heads they have.

Unfortunately the puzzle usually allows you only one question, and while this question would reveal very quickly who was lying and who was telling the truth, you would still need another question to find out which road to take.

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Re: Riddle

Postby Jonathan Townsend » March 27th, 2014, 2:34 pm

Pete McCabe wrote:
PeTEr Mkn wrote:ask the sex of each guard on both doors,
figure this


I believe the idea is, if you want to know whether the guards tell the truth or lie, ask what sex they are. You'll be able to tell immediately. Or you could ask how many heads they have...


Oh my.

Imagining answers like "He is a lying thespian with only one head that I can see at the moment" - figure that.
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time

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Re: Riddle

Postby Ted M » March 27th, 2014, 2:59 pm

I have great fondness for this riddle, as I first encountered it via Doctor Who:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W90s58LtYhk



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erdnasephile
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Re: Riddle

Postby erdnasephile » March 27th, 2014, 10:07 pm

Richard Forster wrote:If you are interested in these type of puzzles you should try one of the books by Raymond Smullyan. The books generally introduce a mathematical concept by a puzzle route, but the first third of most of the books is concerned with "liar / truth-teller" puzzles.

"The Lady or the Tiger", "What is the name of this book" and "Alice in Puzzleland" are the most accessible.


1+

I love this book by Mr. Smullyan--if you enjoy logic puzzles ala the first post in this thread, I suspect you will as well: http://www.amazon.com/What-Name-This-Bo ... +this+book


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