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Which Alice?

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Solutions to the Puzzles<br />

so if the Jabberwocky were told that A claimed to be innocent, B<br />

claimed to be guilty, and C claimed A to be innocent, he would have<br />

known that C was guilty. So it is possible the Jabberwocky was told<br />

this. Now, if the reader will examine the remaining cases — Cases 4,<br />

5, 6, 7, 8 — he will see that Case 6 is the only one (other than Case 3)<br />

where the Jabberwocky could tell who was guilty, and (like Case 3) it<br />

turns out to be C. So either the Jabberwocky was told the statements<br />

of Case 3 or the statements of Case 6, and in both cases it turns out<br />

(by a fortunate coincidence!) that C was guilty.<br />

ANOTHER CASE We know that A accused B, and we don't<br />

know what B or C said. Suppose we were given the additional<br />

information that the guilty one is the only one who lied. Then any<br />

of the three could be guilty; there is no way to tell which one. On<br />

the other hand, if we were told that the guilty one was the only one<br />

who told the truth, then we would know that A couldn't be guilty<br />

(for if he were, he would have told the truth when he accused B,<br />

which would mean that B was guilty) and that B couldn't be guilty<br />

(for if he were, then A would have been innocent and also would<br />

have told the truth about B); so it would have to be C who was<br />

guilty. Therefore, the Red Queen must have been told that the<br />

guilty one was the only one who told the truth; otherwise she could<br />

never have known who was guilty. So the answer is that C is guilty.<br />

AND THIS CASE? Suppose Humpty Dumpty had been told<br />

that all three lied. Then he couldn't have known whether C was<br />

guilty and accused A, or whether A was guilty and C accused<br />

himself (since all three would have lied in either case).<br />

It is impossible that Humpty Dumpty was told that all three told<br />

the truth, because it couldn't be that all three told the truth (since A,<br />

B both accused B, and C accused someone other than B).<br />

If Humpty Dumpty had been told that there were exactly two lies,<br />

then he would have known that it was A and B who lied (because if<br />

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