Prisoners and police - rFronteddu/general_wiki GitHub Wiki

• A policeman decided to punish a prisoner and asks him to make a statement.
• The Prisoner should make such a statement so that he will live.
• If the statement is held true by Policeman, the Prisoner will be hanged to death and if the statement is held false, the Prisoner will be shot dead.

Solution

"I will be shoot to death"

• The statement cannot be true, because if it was the prisoner should've been hanged
• The statement cannot be false, because if it was the prisoner should've been shoot

The paradox arises because whichever option the Policeman chooses, it leads to a contradiction. This paradoxical nature means the Policeman cannot logically decide whether the statement is true or false without causing a contradiction, hence sparing the Prisoner’s life as the decision cannot be made within the rules provided.