No Logic Neccessary!!!!!!!

[Desardes]

A guy is about to be executed (Doesn't it seem odd that all my questions are based on a scenario like that) when the judge summons the prisoner to him. He tells him that his execution will be postponed for tomorrow and on tomorrow he will have to choose of either two papers from a hat. One reads "not kill" and the other "kill". During the night, one of his hated-enemies (a prison guard) changes both papers to "Kill" and he hears about the incident in the morning by another prisoner. He pleads repeatedly to the prisoners to look in the hat but they simply scorn him. The ultimatum given by the judge was for him to take one of the sheets out himself, look at it and that will be his resulting fate. What can the guy do to avoid execution.

I've heard alot of suggested answers by my friends so there really isn't any "wrong" answer but attempt to keep it in the borderlines of the criteria i mentioned.

[joeschmoe]

how about the doomed dude picks a hat and pulls the paper out, and says "ok, now look at the other paper and if it says 'not kill' then I must have kill, so you can kill me, but if it says 'kill', then I must have 'not kill' and I can go free." since both hats have kill, they're bound to pull "kill" from the other hat, setting him free.

davy crocket taught me that. in the famous 3 card monte scam (or the pea under the walnut shell game) the cheat reveals the card you picked, when all the cards are losers (the ace or queen or whatever has been palmed). thus, if you pick a card and keep it hidden, and reveal the other possiblilties as failing, then to avoid being exposed as a cheat, the cheater has to give you the winnings.

[Desardes]

How about answering that hat question for me?

[joeschmoe]

would if I could. I'm thinking.

as for giving others a chance, my bad. but if I didn't respond soon, someone else would have, and no one would have believed that I knew the answer. they'd have been like "yeah right, if you knew it, you would have posted the answer"

[Desardes]

But the answer that i had was that he takes the paper, swalloes it and the remaining one will imply what he has.

[unbiased]

He could just say that he requests to have the fate "opposite" to whatever is picked from the hat.

Nobody should object because as far as they know he would still have a 50/50 chance either way.

How's that?
Unbiased

Originally posted by Desardes
A guy is about to be executed (Doesn't it seem odd that all my questions are based on a scenario like that) when the judge summons the prisoner to him. He tells him that his execution will be postponed for tomorrow and on tomorrow he will have to choose of either two papers from a hat. One reads "not kill" and the other "kill". During the night, one of his hated-enemies (a prison guard) changes both papers to "Kill" and he hears about the incident in the morning by another prisoner. He pleads repeatedly to the prisoners to look in the hat but they simply scorn him. The ultimatum given by the judge was for him to take one of the sheets out himself, look at it and that will be his resulting fate. What can the guy do to avoid execution.

I've heard alot of suggested answers by my friends so there really isn't any "wrong" answer but attempt to keep it in the borderlines of the criteria i mentioned.

[ze leetle elper]

What was the answer? :confused: