This was a question posed by my Sanskrit Master when I was in my 5th Grade. I remember Mani Sir to be an extremely witty person with a flair for riddles which called for intellectual and logical reasoning. He once put forward the following question:
Once upon a time there were two Kings - Harish Chandra and Virish Chandra. Harish Chandra always spoke the truth whereas Virish Chandra lied at every instance that he could get.
Both these kings were sitting in a room. There were two boxes in the room – one filled with sweets and the other filled with snakes.
You enter the room. You do not know the names of either of the kings, nor do you know which box contains the sweets or the snakes.
You can ask both the kings one question each( preferably the same question). You have to find out which box contains the sweets. What would your question be?????
( It’s not too hard …….try answering it ) :)
Once upon a time there were two Kings - Harish Chandra and Virish Chandra. Harish Chandra always spoke the truth whereas Virish Chandra lied at every instance that he could get.
Both these kings were sitting in a room. There were two boxes in the room – one filled with sweets and the other filled with snakes.
You enter the room. You do not know the names of either of the kings, nor do you know which box contains the sweets or the snakes.
You can ask both the kings one question each( preferably the same question). You have to find out which box contains the sweets. What would your question be?????
( It’s not too hard …….try answering it ) :)
14 comments:
hey nice blog gayatri!
:)
ok coming to d solution - is it necessary that I ask questions to the kings?
can't I simply pick up the box & just shake it & listen to the sound to understand what is what?
;)
on second thoughts :
Q wud b : 'can u open dis box of sweets for me?'
to be asked to each of d kings..
wat say?
:)
what will the oder king's answer be if i ask him which is the box of sweets???
ask both this question...u will get to kno the box of snakes... :)
to the question " can you open this box of swweets for me "
if u point to the box of sweets - harishchandra wud say yes. and virishchandra knows he can but he lies. so he would say a no.
You do not know the identity of the kings. So you do not get the answer.
If you ask harish chandra - he would point to one box.
Virish chandra would lie. So he would obviously point to the other box.
Vijay you do not know who is harish chandra and who is virish chandra.
So you again do not get the answer.
Vijay, to your question of which is the box of sweets.....
harish chandra would point to one box.( the box of sweets)
Virish chandra would lie. So he would obviously point to the other box.( the box of snakes )
You do not know who is harish chandra and who is virish chandra.
So you again do not get the answer.
ne prizes for getting it right??
:)
Ask the 1st person
Q. Does any of the boxes contain snakes??
If the answer is Yes(its harish chandra), then ask the next person Q2. which 1 of the boxes contain snakes. The box shown is the box of sweets
If the answer is no (its virish chandra) ask the next person Q2. which 1 of the boxes contain sweets. The box pointed out is the box of sweets
the question is not which is the box of sweets...but what the oder fello will say when i ask that fello what the box of sweets are...
well its like this....
1. u ask person A "what will the oder king's answer be if i ask him which is the box of sweets???"
if he was the truth teller....he will tell the wrong box as the liar will point to the wrong box
if he was the liar in the first place...he will also point to the wrong box as the oder fello hoo is the truth teller will show us the correct box...
so in either case we will get to know the wrong box!!!
Ask each king what the other king would say the box of sweets is?
HarishChandra knowing that VirishChandra lies would point at the box of snakes.
Virishchandra knows Harishchandra speaking the truth would point at the box of sweets and hence lies himself that the answer is the box of snakes.
Since both point to the box of snakes knowing the others motive. You choose the box which they both reject.
have you answered this any whre or have you left the audience to contemplate and walk away
to the lier:which box contains sweets
to the truth sayer:is he lying...
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