Saturday 17 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 Night ClerkExactly two of us are liars.
2. The CartwrightThe Bellhop is a liar, or the Miller is, or both.
3. The PilotThe Miller and I are the same kind.
4. The ButcherAt most five of us are liars.
5. The BellhopThe Porter is honest.
6. The PorterIf I am honest, then so is the Miller.
7. The MillerThe Night Clerk is a liar, or the Porter is, or both.