Saturday 10 October 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 DentistThe Vicar and the Mason are the same kind.
2. The CourierThe Ferryman is a liar, or the Mason is, or both.
3. The ViolinistAt most three of us are liars.
4. The FerrymanThe Mason and the Violinist are different kinds.
5. The ButcherExactly one of us is a liar.
6. The MasonThe Courier and the Butcher are different kinds.
7. The VicarThe Butcher and I are different kinds.