Sunday 23 August 2026

How it works

Every witness is either honest or a liar. An honest witness only says true things, and a liar only says false ones, like the knights and knaves in Raymond Smullyan's puzzles. Each of them makes one statement below. Your job is to mark every witness honest or liar so that all the statements hold up together. Exactly one way of doing that works, and you can reach it by reasoning alone: try a guess, follow what it forces, and drop it the moment two statements clash.

The statements

1. The MasonThe Cook is a liar.
2. The CourierExactly one of us is a liar.
3. The BellhopThe Mason is a liar.
4. The CookThe Painter is a liar, or I am, or both.
5. The PainterThe Mason and the Courier are different kinds.