Saturday 26 September 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 CookThe Weaver is honest.
2. The WeaverAt least two of us are liars.
3. The BarberThe Gardener is a liar, or the Weaver is, or both.
4. The GardenerAt least five of us are liars.
5. The ViolinistIf the Engineer is honest, then so am I.
6. The EngineerThe Potter is a liar.
7. The PotterThe Engineer and I are different kinds.