City/Village

Question

This one is very much like the "Heaven or Hell" riddle but slightly different and with a different story:

A man, who we shall call Bob, was walking down a path when he came to a fork in a road. So, he picked it up. Later on, the path split into two. Bob knows that one way will take him to the City (which is where Bob wants to go) and the other path goes to the Village, where it's inhabitants kill all visitors. There is a Villager standing in front of Bob. Bob can ask the Villager only one question and he must get to the City and he knows that all of the Villagers either only tell lies or only tell the truth. What can Bob ask so that he's sure to make his way to the City?

(Careful, this isn't the same as the other where he could just ask "Point to your home" because the liar will point to the City and the truthteller will point to the Village)

The answer is a bit complicated to explain but i'll see if anyone figures it out.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

I have a feeling this is like something that happened in the movie, The Labyrinth.

XD

Anonymous · Answer

how many villagers are standing there at the fork? cause i've heard it with a villager and a guy from the city. one lies one tells the truth. the liar always lies the other always tells the truth.

the answer is simple. "which way would the other man tell me is the way to the city?" whichever way they both point is the way that leads to the village.

simple.

Mmkay · Answer

Ahh yes, the Labyrinth. Great movie. And yes, this riddle is very similar to that scene except for the fact that there were two people guarding the doors (sort of four) to the Castle and to (Boom Boom ba Boom) Certain Death so she was able to ask "Would he tell me this door leads to the Castle?" as opposed to this riddle where there is only one person. At first, I thought that none of it made sense and that the scriptwriters were just trying to use a lot of double and triple and quadruple negatives to confuse the audience making it look like some genius solution. But, being as bored as I was, I thought a lot about this and what she says really does make sense. The question she asked should have led her to the Castle if one of the "Door Guards" always told the truth and the other always lied. The only conclusion that I came to was that the one who said "One of us always lies and one of us always tells the truth" was actually the one who always lies, which would make his statement false thereby invalidating any logical conlusions Sarah came to. However, if this were true then the alleged liar would partly still be telling the truth: "One of us always lies..." - a statement which is true. One of them always does lie....... but then so does the other. Then again, if one had absolutely no life whatsoever and, having spent countless hours trying to solve this, looked at the subtitles of what they said, one would see that what was said was "...I should warn you, one of us always tells the truth AND one of us always lies" (emphasis added). This is one complete sentence meaning both claims ("one of us always lies" AND "one of us always tells the truth") must be true. Since the statement as a whole is incorrect then, once again, Sarah should have been correct in choosing the door on the right, but she obviously wasn't. So, then I came to a different conclusion that perhaps the guys on bottom who said "We don't know which door is which. But they do" (Referring to the guys on top) were either lying or they simply didn't know if the guys on top really knew or not. Then I thought in broader terms and realized that the whole Labyrinth is screwed up and "nothing is fair" which probably makes the most sense. It also gave me the chance to realize how incredibly bored I was and that there are probably better things to do than sit in front of a television watching the same scene over and over again while trying to solve some stupid riddle that is actually just complete nonsense.

Regardless, you still have not answered this riddle. Sorry (Remember, there is only one Villager at the fork in the road)

Cerberus · Answer

ask the villager while pointing in the direction of one path "does this spoon come from your village?"

if he says yes then he is lying and the path you pointed to leads to the city...if he says no then he is telling the truth and the path you pointed to leads to the village.

Mmkay · Answer

Cerberusask the villager while pointing in the direction of one path "does this spoon come from your village?"

if he says yes then he is lying and the path you pointed to leads to the city...if he says no then he is telling the truth and the path you pointed to leads to the village.

wow...... I umm...... what??
Okay, so first of all, where did the spoon come from? Or perhaps...... THERE IS NO SPOON (MOOOHHAahahaHAHAMUAHAHA)...... ahem.. yeah.

But how do you know which location you're pointing to. Wouldn't their answers switch if you were pointing to the City?

And what if the spoon doesn't come from the Village at all? Their answers would be different depending on that and there's no way you could know which is which or where the spoon actually comes from.

I might have just interpreted your answer wrong so elaborate if I did.

Mmkay · Answer

And btw, the whole 'picking up the fork in the road' thing was just a joke.  It's not part of the riddle.  Sorry for the confusion.

Anonymous · Answer

Very very very simple. Sonce we know he is from the village, Bob should ask "Are you from the village?" If he says no, he is lying, if he says yes, he is telling the truth.

-C

Mmkay · Answer

This only let's you know whether or not the Villager is lying.  This doesn't tell you which way the City or the Village is.  Bob can only ask one question so this doesn't solve it.  Sorry.

Muayad Jajo · Answer

He points in one direction and asks, “Does this way lead to the city?”  If the answer is yes, he would take that way.  If the answer is no, he would take the other way.

Mmkay · Answer

If the Villager is lying then he will point to the Village when you ask "Does this way lead to the City?".  You can't know if the Villager is a liar or truth teller.

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