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Riddle
Indrid Cold
Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
in General Chat
...It doesn't seem logical to me, but I'll be proven wrong. 
In a monastery there are 100 monks. Suddenly a sickness breaks out, which is not contagious. That means some monks got sick immediately, but no others will get it. Whoever has the sickness has a mark on the forehead.
The monks gather every night around a circular table and look at each other. They can't speak or make gestures to each other. All each of them does is look at the other 99 monks. Also, there are no mirrors.
Whoever realises he has the disease kills himself after the meeting. The third night, everyone who had the disease died.
How many monks had the disease?
In a monastery there are 100 monks. Suddenly a sickness breaks out, which is not contagious. That means some monks got sick immediately, but no others will get it. Whoever has the sickness has a mark on the forehead.
The monks gather every night around a circular table and look at each other. They can't speak or make gestures to each other. All each of them does is look at the other 99 monks. Also, there are no mirrors.
Whoever realises he has the disease kills himself after the meeting. The third night, everyone who had the disease died.
How many monks had the disease?
0
Comments
Why do you keep posting weird scenarios? :razz:
It's supposed to be in waste time, I'll move it.
This is a riddle that was posted on another site. I don't know any more of it than I've posted above. Though I think the mark on the forehead is a symptom.
they get out some pens and paper, and write "you've got a mark on your head" on it and give it to those who have a mark on their head...
however, the fact that they cant communicate with each other has no bearing on the number of them who had the disease.
The riddle doesnt ask anything about how they spoke to each other, I see no logical (numerical) solution to the actually question of this riddle - how many of them actually had the disease.
those who realised on evening 1 or 2 that they had the disease killed themselves. those who who had it but didnt realised died on the third night anyway. so the suicides the previous 2 nights are irrelevant too.
the answer is, "some of the monks had the disease"
How can they die on the 3rd night if they've already killed themselves after the meeting? Or has that got something to do with the answer?
They're Buddhist monks, as I was told it... and 7 of them had the disease I think. The aim for us was to work out how many days it took all the monks to die... or something like that. I had no idea, it made me go cross eyed just thinking about it!
maybe so, but the riddle asks how many of them had the disease, not how many of them died, nor how they worked out who had it :chin:
take a case where there are 3 monks and two people have the disease
on the first day each person with a mark sees that one of the two others has a mark. Hence he concludes that he might not have a mark.
when the three come back the next day they'd notice that they are still 3, hence if the other person with a mark on his head didn't kill himself then it must mean that he has a mark too (since if he hadn't a mark then the other person would have killed himself for sure since at least one of them is sick). So that night the 2 people with the mark (having thought the same way) kill themselves.
now take the example of 100 monks and it's the same. if 2 are sick ... the second day they kill themselves
for 3 monks sames story 3 days
for 4 monks , 4 days
etc.....
I was giving a diagnosis...just call me Dr Bunnie!
However, unforgiven, you have managed to confuse me, but yet enlighten me at the same time.
It's still possible that the one I got it from didn't write it correctly, but he insisted he did...
how many had it = number who died
think of it from a sick person's point of view
comes in 1st day ... sees that one of the monks has a mark doesn't know that he also has one
comes the 2nd day... sees the marked person still there eventhough he can see that no other person has a mark
only conclusion they both have a mark => on the 2nd day they both die
=D=D
let me help you a bit assume there are 4 monks
in case 1 monk is sick
[ ] [x]
[ ] [ ] CASE 1
we agree that in 1 day he would kill himself
in case of 2
[x] [x]
[ ] [ ] CASE 2
here the first day one of the sick monks assumes the other will kill himself if he is not sick (since that will imply case 1 )
but since the other sick person showed up then he too is sick (since all others are not which he can see )
three monks
[x] [x]
[x] [ ]
same here... the sick monks assume it's case 2, if after 2 days the other 2 show up (which will happen here) then they'll know that they are sick
and so on
for the non sick person they'd be waiting for the sick to not return which will happen hence they'd know they are not sick