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MaggieD

MaggieD

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A Numbers episode the other day:

You have two crooks and are trying to find out where they stashed the loot. Is it buried in the cemetery or hidden in a house?

Ask them both what the other guy's going to say. You'll hear the wrong answer twice.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around this. Is that correct? You'll hear the wrong answer twice?
 
I think this is what is being referred to, maybe?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner's_dilemma
MaggieD said:
A Numbers episode the other day:

You have two crooks and are trying to find out where they stashed the loot. Is it buried in the cemetery or hidden in a house?

Ask them both what the other guy's going to say. You'll hear the wrong answer twice.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around this. Is that correct? You'll hear the wrong answer twice?
Click to expand...
 
It makes sense, if you assume neither man wants the truth known. If both men know where it is buried--say the cemetery--both will say the house. So if asked what the other will say, each will assume the other will lie and say the house.
 
MaggieD said:
A Numbers episode the other day:

You have two crooks and are trying to find out where they stashed the loot. Is it buried in the cemetery or hidden in a house?

Ask them both what the other guy's going to say. You'll hear the wrong answer twice.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around this. Is that correct? You'll hear the wrong answer twice?
Click to expand...
Do you happen to remember the name or episode number or something? You may have left some small detail out of this.


There is an old riddle logic about two men guarding two doors. Behind one of these doors is freedom and the other is death. One of the guards always lies and the other always tells the truth but you don't know which is which. You ask the question, "If you were the other guard which door would you tell me to take to freedom?" Under those conditions you will get the wrong answer twice. So if they thought one of the crooks was telling truth, then that's the result you would get - two wrong answers.

Lets say the loot is in the house:

The crook that's lying will tell you the other guy will say the cemetery because the other guy will tell the truth about it being in the house (if you ask him directly) but this is the crook that always lies, so he'll say the opposite.

The crook that doesn't lie will tell you the other guy will say the cemetery. In this case, the crook isn't lying when he tells you the other guy will say it's in the cemetery because he knows the other guy will lie about it.

When you reduce it down to logic symbols you get false for both answers.
 
Last edited:
Fletch said:
It makes sense, if you assume neither man wants the truth known. If both men know where it is buried--say the cemetery--both will say the house. So if asked what the other will say, each will assume the other will lie and say the house.
Click to expand...
If you know they're both lying then it doesn't have to be that involved. Both stories will agree (the opposite of the truth) if you simply ask them where it is. You don't have to ask them what the other guy will say about it.
 
MaggieD said:
A Numbers episode the other day:

You have two crooks and are trying to find out where they stashed the loot. Is it buried in the cemetery or hidden in a house?

Ask them both what the other guy's going to say. You'll hear the wrong answer twice.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around this. Is that correct? You'll hear the wrong answer twice?
Click to expand...

It's not that you WILL hear the wrong answer twice, but the odds are stacked towards hearing the wrong answer twice.

You have: house house (good answers)
cemetery cemetery (good answers)
house cemetery (bad)
cemetery house (bad)

So you have 1/2 chances of getting the bad answer.

But if only cemetery is correct, then you have 1/4 odds of getting the right answer.

Now with this in mind, this is incomplete. Because you need a punishment for the ones who give the wrong answer. Otherwise, there is no risk. So lets say that the cemetery is the right answer, then you have the following.
House house (bad overall)
Cemetery cemetery (good overall)
cemetery house (good for one, bad for the other)
house cemetery (bad for one, good for the other).

If you are the first one, you have 1/4 chance of getting the best answer for you (cemetery house) because you get to keep all the money, and 1/4 chances to get the good answer (cemtery cemetery) where you split the money, and 1/2 odds of getting a bad answer (house house/ house cemetery).

You can fiddle all you want and add as many variables as you wish.
 
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