Brain Teasers
Unlucky Car Thief
A car thief, who had managed to evade the authorities in the past, unknowingly took the automobile that belonged to Inspector Detweiler. The sleuth wasted no time and spared no effort in discovering and carefully examining the available clues. He was able to identify four suspects with certainty that one of them was the culprit.
The four make the statements below. In total, six statements are true and six false.
Suspect A:
1. C and I have met many times before today.
2. B is guilty.
3. The car thief did not know it was the Inspector's car.
Suspect B:
1. D did not do it.
2. D's third statement is false.
3. I am innocent.
Suspect C:
1. I have never met A before today.
2. B is not guilty.
3. D knows how to drive.
Suspect D:
1. B's first statement is false.
2. I do not know how to drive.
3. A did it.
Which one is the car thief?
The four make the statements below. In total, six statements are true and six false.
Suspect A:
1. C and I have met many times before today.
2. B is guilty.
3. The car thief did not know it was the Inspector's car.
Suspect B:
1. D did not do it.
2. D's third statement is false.
3. I am innocent.
Suspect C:
1. I have never met A before today.
2. B is not guilty.
3. D knows how to drive.
Suspect D:
1. B's first statement is false.
2. I do not know how to drive.
3. A did it.
Which one is the car thief?
Answer
Consider that six statements are false. A's first statement and C's first statement contradict each other. One of them is false. C's and D's contradict each other. One of them is false. Therefore, there are four additional false statements.Assume A is guilty. If so, A's second statement, B's second statement, and D's first statement are the additional false statements.
Assume D is guilty. If so, A's second statement, B's first statement, and D's third statement are false. This also only makes five false statements. D did not do it.
Assume C did it. If so, A's second statement, D's first and third statements are false. This again, makes only five false statements.
After ruling out suspects A, C and D, B is the culprit. B's third statement, C's second statement, and D's first and third statements are the additional false statements. This adds up to six.
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Comments
Apr 21, 2005
that completley blew my mind. good job.
I also started by pairing off contradictory statements (A1 and C1, C3 and D2, B2 and D3, B1 and D1. Also, A2 contradicted both C3 and D2. This left A3. In order to get 6 true statements, A2 and A3 would have to be either both true or both false. Since the opening statement said the the theif did not know it was the inspector's car, that meant that statement A3 had to be true, which meant that A2 had to be true. A2 said that B was guilty.
Very creative and enjoyable.
im glad you liked it a lot better than my last teaser
It was HARD!
You would think that being an inspector, he would be aware of the dangers of car theft. He should have had an alarm. What kind of car was it?
i dont know
you should have sent this teaser to the mystery category
Couldn't really be bothered to solve it. I like the mysteries better, though this WAS a pretty good teaser.
now my head hurts
wait so who did it?
This isnt a "trick" teaser!
This isnt a "trick" teaser!
Good I cnmne. I didn't remember that it had said unknowingly but still guessed B because if he wasn't you couldn't definately decide who was.
do i sound like anybody? "omg i feel so bad for myself, im so hated. everybody hates me" lol
libra0890
libra0890
i dont go around saying that, im actually mature
I figured it out just by looking at the clues, to me it was pretty easy, but it was a good teaser anyways!
ok im sorry.
libra0890
libra0890
s'ok
BOO!
holy cow, this -i think- is an awsome teaser. kick --- job with the 'tricking'
considering its not trick, its more of a ruling out teaser than anything, preferably logic or logic grid, and maybe mistery
i congradulate you with this, you seem to have stumped just about everyone
considering its not trick, its more of a ruling out teaser than anything, preferably logic or logic grid, and maybe mistery
i congradulate you with this, you seem to have stumped just about everyone
May 16, 2005
I am confused if D1 is false doesn't that mean D did it
yeah d says b's first statement is false, but b's first is d did not do it????? I am sorry I do not like this teaser.
May 22, 2005
YOU ARE HATED
I agree with deadeye823 but disagree with moktapa. This should be in logic.
I also agree with tdionne.
I gave up too fast...lol. Good one
i finally found one i couldn't answer, good job!
thank you! i guess you must be smart
you know what RAIDERS, the raiders are the worst team in the league(in my opinion). and, you think it's retarded becausew you didn't get it. HA! so there!
While this wasn't a trick teaser, all the info we needed was there to solve it. If others got it, how can anyone dispute a good teaser? This was a fun one!
good job i liked it
This teaser took me hours to figure out. But after all that i was wrong anyway. And the fact that the answer made no sense didn't help!!!
That was very enjoyable!
Man D rats himself out and says that he did it. How is it not D? Is it just a boo boo? I mean if B1 says D is not guilty, and then D says that B1 is a lie . . . Maybe I just dont get it cuz im new. But I think something is off.
like someone said, contradictory statements can be subtracted out together because # of true statements=#of false statements, and if you subtract one from both sides, you still have an equal number of true and false statements.
it's really easy if you do it like this.
it's really easy if you do it like this.
i was doing the whole "subtracting thing" and then read A3 which said that the suspect didn't know it was the inspectors car...i would have thought only the person who stole it would be in a position to know that sort of information.... (and thus decided that the rest of the info was a ruse and that A had done it...)
Yeah, I also thought that about A knowing it was the inspector's car and initally assumed it was him because of that "inside" information. Then I wondered why on earth D would say that B's 1st statement was false, seeing as how that made him guilty. Seeing how easy those two guesses were made me realize I was totally barking up the wrong tree. Sooo, I got a little hint by peeking (i.e.: speed of light glance at the answer without reading it) and saw just how wrong I was by the length of the answer. So, I ended up working it out. Good one, but the "obvious" answers threw me!
WOAH!! very hard really confusing to i like the kind were u dont have to think for an hour and need paper n stuff but i think lots of people like this and you dida good job bcuz u tricked lots of people!! too bad no1 can get it
my frien and i could have got it but we were just too lazy for this particular teaser because it is way too long(in my opinion)but the answer made no sense at all!!!!!!!
too long and hard!!!!
hey andy nice teaser it actully keep me up from the other wones i read by other ppl they were so boring and raiders doesnt have to be sush a jerk
it said Assume D is guilty..blah...blah...blah...Dis innocent.
WHAT?!?!?!
WHAT?!?!?!
Follow the instructions, you'll get it!
This one was too much for my brain. Good
i gave up it was confusing...lol
Good job, but would one suspect really know what the others said, and in what order? I still liked it though!
Does anyone have some Tylenol?
wrong category
No, Mystery is a perfect category.
Dec 01, 2005
read it once, didnt bother to think it through because it was flawed.
B says that D is innocent. D then calls that statement false. There is no incentive for D to do that ruling out his and the author's insanity.
And I prefer to assume the guys innocent until PROVEN guilty. not vice versa. a mathematician couldnt catch a car thief for nuts.
B says that D is innocent. D then calls that statement false. There is no incentive for D to do that ruling out his and the author's insanity.
And I prefer to assume the guys innocent until PROVEN guilty. not vice versa. a mathematician couldnt catch a car thief for nuts.
INSPECTOR means private eye...
the answer was sort of hard to understand.
hard teaser, didn't get it
i thought that d was it to because he said b's third statment was false and b's third statement said d was innocent
hard teaser, didn't get it
i thought that d was it to because he said b's third statment was false and b's third statement said d was innocent
Read the directions! Only six statements are true.
i thought that was a really awesome teaser
glad you could do it cause i could never think of that
really fun thanx
glad you could do it cause i could never think of that
really fun thanx
Cool Teaser !!!!!( I am saying this as i was able to solve it !)
But, i guess, this is more of a logic problem than a MYSTERY TEASER....Nevertheless, the police also needs logic to find out the criminals !
But, i guess, this is more of a logic problem than a MYSTERY TEASER....Nevertheless, the police also needs logic to find out the criminals !
yeah, um... my brain definitly hurts now great job anyway, must have taken a while to make
That confuzled (no that is not a typo it's my cooler word for confuzing) my brian!
this is a very dumb teaser considering Bs first statement was that D didnt do it and D's first statement was that B's first statement was wrong so all clues point to D because he said B's first statement ,which proved him innocent, was false so it proved him the car theif.
Good job, I liked this teaser a lot! I solved it by making a chart and went through the four possibilities of who could be guilty. I think the important thing is to realize that it doesn't matter if statements like A1 are true or false... just that they're the opposite of statements like C1. Assume A1 is true (or false) and count up from there.
There are several teasers like this in the Logic area, but Mystery is a good place for it too.
There are several teasers like this in the Logic area, but Mystery is a good place for it too.
Wooooooah. Headache! It was fun though! But a little too, thinkative for me. Hehe
was unexpectedly easy.. A3 is true and then there 4 contradictory pairs of sentences.. that gives 5 trues and 4 false.. and with the contradictory pairs you can arrange true or false in anyway to make either A or D or non of those two to be the culprit.. the remaining 3 sentences are A2, B3 and C3. if B is guilty, only A2 is true and other two are false. and since you need one more true statement and 2 more lies, B has to be guilty.
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