Half Truthful
Logic puzzles require you to think. You will have to be logical in your reasoning.
Three Paley brothers and three Thomson brothers operate a company that manufactures lie detectors. Three of these six men always tell the truth, and three always tell lies; neither set of brothers consists exclusively of liars. Some recent statements from the six men are recorded below. Can you find the six men's full names, and tell which men tell the truth and which tell lies?
1. Alan: "Both my brothers tell lies."
2. Boris: "Both my brothers tell the truth."
3: Chuck: "Alan and Boris are both liars."
4. Dalman: "Chuck and I are brothers."
5. Edwin: "Boris and I are brothers."
6. Finney: "Edwin tells the truth."
7. Finney: "Boris is one of the Paleys."
Answer
Alan Thompson, Liar
Boris Paley, liar
Chuck Thomson, truthteller
Dalman Paley, liar
Edwin Paley, truthteller
Finney Thomson, truthteller
Neither set of brothers consists entirely of liars (introduction), so neither consists entirely of truthtellers, either. Boris, then, can't be telling the truth (clue 2); Boris is a liar. If Alan lies, then Chuck tells the truth (clue 3), and vice versa, so between Alan and Chuck, one is a liar and one a truthteller. By elimination, Dalman, Edwin, and Finney are, in some order, one liar and two truthtellers. If Finney is a liar, so is Edwin (clue 6), which is impossible; so Finney tells the truth and so does Edwin (Clue 6); Dalman, then, is a liar. Boris is a Paley (clue 7). Edwin is a Paley (clue 5). Chuck and Dalman are not brothers (clue 4), so one is a Paley and the other a Thomson; by elimination, Alan and Finney are both Thomsons. Finney Thomson tells the truth, so Alan Thomson is a liar (clue 1) and Chuck is a truthteller (clue 3). Boris Paley lied when he said both of his brothers tell the truth (clue 2); one of his brothers is Edwin Paley, a truthteller, so the other must be a liar - and therefore the third Paley can't be Chuck, a truthteller, so must be Dalman, a liar. By elimination, Chuck is a Thompson.
...got it?
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Comments
OsgoodeLaw
Jul 12, 2002
| Fantastic puzzel! |
im_para_noid  
Jul 13, 2002
| eegads man, that is truly confusing |
Piffle
Jul 14, 2002
| Truly a mind-boggler. good job |
Dina_2002
Jul 17, 2002
| got it after about an hour of taking notes and stuff. my brain hurts :-( wonderful teaser |
jasin
Jul 17, 2002
| extremely confusing but well thought ot good job.
|
tommo
Aug 06, 2002
| I enjoyed it. |
kkats4
Aug 06, 2002
| eegads!!!!!! LOL! |
sillywilly
Aug 06, 2002
| I think this one is already on this site under a different name (about 60% sure). It's a good puzzle in any case. |
zangel3000
Aug 20, 2002
| I thought that I had rated this one b4-like sillywilly's thinking, maybe there's a double. |
dumbell
Aug 20, 2002
| boy am I glad I don't get charged by the minute for internet connection. this would have cost me a small fortune. Well done. |
c13urly
Aug 22, 2002
| How do you jump to Boris being a "LIAR" with no facts? |
ADAMANT545
Oct 08, 2002
| WUT DO U MEAN U CANT PUT MY TEASER ON BOBBRT OR WUTEVER U R |
taniapereira99 
Jul 29, 2003
| Broris can only be a liar because if he was truthful, his two brothers would be truthful - making the three other brothers liars - which can't happen as stated in the question. VERY GOOD Teaser! one of my favs cuz it took me a while to solve!! |
energizer74
Jun 25, 2004
| This teaser seems a lot like part of the movie "Labyrinth." She encounters two doors, each with two characters, two lie and the other two tell the truth, and she has to figure out which door leads to the castle and which one leads to certain death. Good teaser none-the-less, a logical brain-buster.  |
shelleyz
Jun 25, 2004
| wow really confusing, lots of thinking , it takes quite a while to get it.. great one |
jmcleod
Jun 25, 2004
| That was one of the best on the site. If it was original, great job. |
vbfreak55
Jun 27, 2004
| wow! that was WAY too confusing for me!! i gave up! i don't like this one, sorry!  |
gabe1991 
Jun 29, 2004
|  |
marigold
Feb 12, 2005
| No I don't get it! I usually enjoy your teasers, but this one bombed!!!   |
shenqiang 
Nov 15, 2005
| "neither set of brothers consists exclusively of liars" is redundant. It can be deduced from Alan's statement. |
precious1026
Jan 07, 2009
| Hoe can something that at first glance make no sense, then on second thought have possibilities of a solution be fun? This Teaser is difficult, boring and possess no true answer other then-
six brothers have the capacity to lie, and six brothers have the ability to tell the Truth.  |
emu77alu02
Jan 07, 2009
| This was challenging, but so fun! I love logic teasers--when I finally solve them, I feel like I really accomplished something. And my brain feels stretched!  |
builder
Jan 07, 2009
| these take time but everything fits if you read the clues carefully, Good job  |
doehead
Jan 07, 2009
| If you can unscramble your brain, it becomes fairly easy. |
Marijah  
Jan 07, 2009
| i dont know what everyone is getting pissy about-- this was cute and actually pretty easy--
well done sweetie |
kauphi1976
Jan 07, 2009
| everything fit together perfectly.. took like 10 mins though.. was a fun way to start a wed morning :-) |
UptheHill
Jan 07, 2009
| Didn't get it!!! |
bradon182001
Jan 07, 2009
| I guess it was well thought out, but I got lost right at the start. Thanks anyways, for posting. |
Oinky08
Jan 07, 2009
| gawd. hard from the start til the end.. |
braniannd
Jan 08, 2009
| i don't get it at all  it hurts my brain |
rainbirdbrain
Mar 01, 2009
| Took me about 15 minutes but I got it! Good one! |
jaycr
Jan 07, 2012
| It would seem that there are some liars out there.... hmmm |
gghali
Jan 07, 2012
| That was awesome! It took a long time, but definitely well worth the effort. Great work. |
cutebug
Jan 07, 2012
| It made my brain work hard this morning,but it prevailed.Great mental workout. Hi to a couple of YOUNG ladies on I met on briangle.  |
auntiesis
Jan 07, 2012
| For me the second line gave the first big clue, after that it became easy as long as you didn't become too confused. Loved it. |
mepapa
Jan 07, 2012
| I don't care for these logic style. and by the way I think there is a little more deer fly too cute bug then cute bug let's on. |
DarylK
Jan 07, 2012
| True, the first to points are the best hints.
Took me 3 hours to solve this, haha |
DarylK
Jan 07, 2012
| first two* |
skippington
Jan 07, 2012
| this is a basic logic grid puzzle. if you like this kind of puzzle just google "how to solve a logic grid puzzle." if you draw out the grid, it only takes a minute or two to solve. |
dsjt
Jan 09, 2012
| Excellent puzzle. And I'm not lying! |
DarylK
Dec 19, 2012
| best liar-truth puzzle of all time. |
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