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

Can you find the next number in the below sequence
3 , 7 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 17 ?

Asked by Neha on 04 Mar 2025


A devotee visits 9 temples when he visits India. All these nine temples have one thing in common - there are 100 steps in every temple. The devotee puts the Re.1 coin after climbing up every step. He does the same while climbing down every step. At each temple, the devotee offers half of his money from his pocket to god. In this way, his pocket becomes empty after he visits the 9th temple.

Can you calculate the total amount he had initially?

Asked by Neha on 27 Apr 2026

If you read clockwise, you can form a word by inserting three missing letters in the picture given below. Can you do it?

English Clockwise

Asked by Neha on 10 Sep 2023


A word I know,
Six letters contain,
Subtract just one,
And twelve is what remains.

Asked by Neha on 18 Feb 2024

A woman lives in a skyscraper thirty-six floors high and is served by several elevators which stop at each floor going up and down. Each morning she leaves her apartment and goes to one of the elevators. Whichever one she takes is three times more likely to be going up than down. Why?

Asked by Neha on 01 Nov 2024

If you remove one from eleven, it becomes ten. If you remove one from nine, it becomes ten.

How is this possible?

Asked by Neha on 25 Sep 2023


What is the longest word in the dictionary?

Asked by Neha on 28 Jun 2024

This is a famous paradox which has caused a great deal of argument and disbelief from many who cannot accept the correct answer. Four balls are placed in a hat. One is white, one is blue and the other two are red. The bag is shaken and someone draws two balls from the hat. He looks at the two balls and announces that at least one of them is red. What are the chances that the other ball he has drawn out is also red?

Asked by Neha on 17 Oct 2024

I never stop running even when I standstill. If I am formed by joining two identical bodies together, can you guess who I am?

Asked by Neha on 28 Mar 2023


A thief is convicted in Mexico. He gets the death penalty. The judge allows him to say the last sentence to determine how the penalty will be carried out. If the thief lies, he will be hanged, if he speaks the truth he will be beheaded. The thief tells the last sentence and to everybody's surprise some minutes later he is set free because the judge cannot determine his penalty. What did the thief say?

Asked by Neha on 07 Sep 2024

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence has crushed all human records in the puzzle game “2048,” achieving a high score of 839,732 and beating the game in only 973 moves without using any undo.