Honestants and Swindlecants #3 (Solution)

Have you got your answer? Let’s compare with mine.

From the situation we know that:

• There are 2 guards: Scaffold guard and Freedom guard, but we cannot differ them.
• One of guards is a Swindlecant, and we don’t know who is who.
• Sovereign was an Honestant.
• Only one question to one guard allowed.

Here we need to know who they are. We need single question to get double information. And the question is, “What would he (the other guard) say if I asked him where this door leads?”

If the guard you’re asking is an honestant, he’d say (the truth) that the other guard’s lying. If the guard you’re asking is a swindlecant, he’d say (lie) that the other guard’s lying. Whether the guard you’re asking is an honestant or a swindlecant, you’ll get negated answer.

From brain teaser forum  got these two other answers:

1. Tricky question, “Hey you, does an honestant stand at the door to freedom?

The answer will be YES, if I am asking an honestant who is standing at the door to freedom, or if I am asking a swindlecant standing again at the same door. So I can walk through the door. A similar deduction can be made for negative answer.

1. Complicated question, “Hey you, what would you say, if I asked you ...?

An honestant is clear, but a swindlecant should lie. However, he is forced by the question to lie two times and thus speak the truth.

P.S.: This brain teaser I copied from Brain Teasers (http://brainden.com/logic-problems.htm). Just on click on that link, then you’ll get more brain teasers to tease your brain or even just to ease your boring day. When you get stuck, you can visit brain teasers forum to get extra “clues” from them whom have tried to solve it (but for me, it’s better to do it by myself as I did in solving this quiz).