The policeman decided to punish the prisoner and asked him to make a statement. The prisoner should make such a statement so that he would be alive.
- If the statement is held true by the policeman, the prisoner will be hanged to death, and
- If the statement is held false, the prisoner will be shot dead.
Check if you were right—full answer with solution below.
Solution:
The prisoner said, "I will be shot dead."
Now consider the two possible scenarios the policeman has to decide on:
- If the statement is declared true, then according to the rules, the prisoner should be hanged. But that would make the statement true, and the rule says he must be hanged for telling the truth, a contradiction.
- If the statement is declared false, the prisoner should be shot. But if he is shot, then his statement becomes true, contradicting the assumption that it was false.
However, here is the real crux: No matter what the policeman decides, it leads to a logical paradox:
- If the statement is true, the prisoner should be hanged (for truth), but that contradicts the content of the statement.
- If the statement is false, the prisoner should be shot (for falsehood), but then the statement becomes true.
This self-referential paradox means the statement cannot be consistently classified as either true or false under the rules provided.