A prisoner is told: ”If you tell a lie, we will hang you, and if you tell the truth we will shoot you”. What did the prisoner say to save himself?

Imagine being caught in a high-stakes riddle where your life depends on the answer. This is the dire situation a prisoner faces in a puzzling dilemma: he’s presented with a seemingly no-win scenario by his captors. If he lies, he faces the gallows; if he speaks the truth, a firing squad awaits. With the stakes as high as they can get, the prisoner’s wit is put to the ultimate test. The riddle challenges not just the prisoner but also us, as onlookers, to think creatively and outside the box. What could you possibly say to escape an outcome that seems inevitable?

Answer

The prisoner said: “You will hang me.”

Explanation

The prisoner’s response is a stroke of genius because it creates a paradox. If the captors choose to hang him based on his statement, that would make his statement the truth, which should, according to their own rules, result in him being shot instead. On the other hand, if they decide to shoot him, that would mean he lied, but then he should be hanged as per their initial ultimatum.

This clever answer puts the captors in an impossible situation. If they hang him, they violate their own conditions because he will have spoken the truth. If they shoot him, they also violate their conditions because he will have told a lie. The only logical outcome would be to not execute him at all, thus sparing his life.

The prisoner’s reply is the perfect use of logical reasoning, where the only way to survive is to ensure that any action taken by the captors contradicts their own statement. It’s a masterful escape hatch from a seemingly inescapable trap, proving that sometimes, the power of words and wit can prevail against even the most dire circumstances.