Prisoner to be freed

The warden meets with 23 new prisoners when they arrive. He tells them, "You may meet today and plan a strategy. But after today, you will be in isolated cells and will have no communication with one another.

"In the prison is a switch room, which contains two light switches labeled 1 and 2, each of which can be in either up or the down position. I am not telling you their present positions. The switches are not connected to anything.

"After today, from time to time whenever I feel so inclined, I will select one prisoner at random and escort him to the switch room. This prisoner will select one of the two switches and reverse its position. He must flip one switch when he visits the switch room, and may only flip one of the switches. Then he'll be led back to his cell.

"No one else will be allowed to alter the switches until I lead the next prisoner into the switch room. I'm going to choose prisoners at random. I may choose the same guy three times in a row, or I may jump around and come back. I will not touch the switches, if I wanted you dead you would already be dead.

"Given enough time, everyone will eventually visit the switch room the same number of times as everyone else. At any time, anyone may declare to me, 'We have all visited the switch room.'

"If it is true, then you will all be set free. If it is false, and somebody has not yet visited the switch room, you will all die horribly. You will be carefully monitored, and any attempt to break any of these rules will result in instant death to all of you"

What is the strategy they come up with so that they can be free?




Similar Riddles

The king of Octopuses has servants who have six, seven or eight legs. The distinguishing characteristics of the servants is that the one with seven legs always lie but the one with either six or eight legs speak the truth always.

One day, four servants meet and converse:

The black one says, 'We have 28 legs altogether.'

The green one says, 'We have 27 legs altogether.'

The yellow one says, 'We have 26 legs altogether.'

The red one says, 'We have 25 legs altogether.'


Can you identify the colour of the servant who is speaking the truth?

Servants with multiple legs

Asked by Neha on 09 Apr 2021


Birbal was jester, counsellor, and fool to the great Moghul emperor, Akbar.
The villagers loved to talk of Birbal's wisdom and cleverness,
and the emperor loved to try to outsmart him.
One day Akbar (emperor) drew a line across the floor.
"Birbal," he ordered, "you must make this line shorter, but you cannot erase any bit of it."
Everyone present thought the emperor had finally outsmarted Birbal.
It was clearly an impossible task.
Yet within moments the emperor and everyone else present had to agree that Birbal had made the line shorter without erasing any of it.
How could this be?

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What does man love more than life, hate more than death or mortal strife; That which contented men desire; the poor have, the rich require; the miser spends, the spendthrift saves, and all men carry to their graves?

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How many words can a quill made with the feather of a pigeon write with a 100ml bottle of black ink?

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If you were to put a coin into an empty bottle and then insert a cork into the neck, how could you remove the coin without taking out the cork or breaking the bottle?

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I have thought of a number that is made up by using all the ten digits just once. Here are a few clues for you to guess my number:

First digits is divisible by 1.
First two digits are divisible by 2.
First three digits are divisible by 3.
First four digits are divisible by 4.
First five digits are divisible by 5.
First six digits are divisible by 6.
First seven digits are divisible by 7.
First eight digits are divisible by 8.
First nine digits are divisible by 9.
The number is divisible by 10.

Can you find out the number ?

Asked by Neha on 12 Mar 2023


Outside a tattoo artist's shop, there was a signboard which read 'I make tattoos on only them who do not tattoo themselves'.

Reading it what do you think, does the tattoo artist tattoo himself?

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What does the below rebus riddle means?

Wise Rebus Riddle

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You have two buckets of 11 liters and 6 litres.
How can you measure exactly 8 litres?

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A mad serial killer kidnaps people and forces them to play the game of 2 pills with them, In this game, there are pills in the table and one of them is normal pill while the other one is deadly poisonous.
The victim will choose one pill and the killer will pick the other pill and both simultaneously will swallow the pill with water.
victim dies every time.

One day the serial killer kidnaps the Joseph and forces him to play the same game with him.

Joseph solves the mystery of the two pills and remains alive.

Explain?

Asked by Neha on 15 May 2021

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In Canada, a mathematical puzzle must be solved in order to win the lottery to classify it as a “game of skill” not gambling.