No, first I asked if the truth he told was about his age, you said no, and somewhere I got stuck in my head that you said yes. Entirely my fault, but sure made a difference!
This answer is deceptive in a way. While No is correct, one would think it was about his age if they heard what he said. Maybe that is obvious, but I thought it might make things clearer.

Did the recruiter give him the piece of paper to write on? No

Did he already have the paper with him? Yes

Even though it wasn't a "form," was it still something official? No

Did he make (spoken) reference to what he wrote down? Yes

If so, was that reference somehow how he was "technically" telling the truth? Yes

Did he read the paper to the man? No

Could the recruiter read? Yes, I assume so. Irrelevant really.

I really have no idea now... :(

He scribbles some numbers on a piece of paper, and he says something which is true, but a lie. Lie in the sense that it is not his real age, but true in some other way...

Did he make reference to someone he knew?
Did he try to pass himself for another person?
Is it relevant the number of digits he wrote down?
- If so, did he write two digits? 3? 4? 5? 6?

Was the piece of paper his birth certificate?

A letter from his mother?

A note from his doctor?

Did the paper belong to him?

Is the "lie" part actually not his age, but his identity?

He scribbles some numbers on a piece of paper, and he says something which is true, but a lie. Lie in the sense that it is not his real age, but true in some other way... Right. What he says about his age is a lie, but because of what he wrote on the paper what he says is actually a truth. What he says therefore has 2 different meanings.

Did he make reference to someone he knew? No
Did he try to pass himself for another person? No
Is it relevant the number of digits he wrote down? Yes
- If so, did he write two digits? Yes 3? 4? 5? 6? No to the rest.

Was the piece of paper his birth certificate? No

A letter from his mother? No

A note from his doctor? No

Did the paper belong to him? Yes, it's just a piece of paper.

Is the "lie" part actually not his age, but his identity? No

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Originally Posted by Just Looking

Is it relevant the number of digits he wrote down? Yes
- If so, did he write two digits? Yes 3? 4? 5? 6? No to the rest.

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I have to slow down in my reading. I read your first question as, "Is it relevant the digits he wrote down?" The number he writes down is relevant, and the only reason the number of digits is relevant is in determining what that number is.

Well, all I can think about a two digit number is: the year, the date or the month...

Is this number related to a year? A date?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Unknown008

Well, all I can think about a two digit number is: the year, the date or the month...

Is this number related to a year? a date?

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No. Just a number. Try to narrow down the number.

Do I have to ask all the 100 2 digit numbers? :eek:

Does the number contain a:
0?
1?
2?
3?
4?
5?
6?
7?
8?
9?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Unknown008

Do I have to ask all the 100 2 digit numbers? :eek:

Does the number contain a:
0?
1? yes
2?
3?
4?
5?
6?
7?
8? yes
9?

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That was a clever way to do it.

Ok, now is the number:
18?
81?

Ok, now is the number:
18? yes
81? no

Now, that surely means 18 years... but then, I'm still confused as to what he might have said :(

Maybe it's because I don't use English often enough :(

I'll have to think more about it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Unknown008

Now, that surely means 18 years... but then, I'm still confused as to what he might have said :(

Maybe it's because I don't use English often enough :(

I'll have to think more about it.

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I hope it's not a language barrier, but I don't think it is. You've had some great questions and are closing in on this. I have to go into a meeting, and I know it's late for you. I'll check back later to see if you posted anything. :)

I'm going to sleep now, yes. I'll be trying to think about this :)

Got another student cancel so I get to look at this a bit. 'Course it took a while to go through the new questions.

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No, first I asked if the truth he told was about his age, you said no, and somewhere I got stuck in my head that you said yes. Entirely my fault, but sure made a difference!
This answer is deceptive in a way. While No is correct, one would think it was about his age if they heard what he said. Maybe that is obvious, but I thought it might make things clearer.

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No, actually, you just gave a clue away. It might be obvious to you, but that the truth would "seem to be an age if they heard what he said" is not obvious. The "truth" part could have been anything, and also really the truth, and not necessarily something that would sound like the truth. Yes, it's obvious there's a deception, but that little detail is not obvious.

Quote:

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Could the recruiter read? Yes, I assume so. Irrelevant really.

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Don't know when this takes place, but the idea of assuming everyone can read is a relatively new one. ;)

So, what he said had a lie, and the truth part was actually technically truthful, but in combination with the lie and the piece of paper, came off sounding like the lie was true? Is that the general idea? (You don't need to get technical - just is that the general idea?)

Is the 18 the age he wanted the recruiter to believe he was?

(You know, you really cheated on that. In fact, I had it in my head that he didn't write an age. Of course, looking back, you only said he didn't write "his" age, not "an" age.)

Quote:

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Did he actually state his age as a number of years? Yes-ish

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Does this mean he stated "an" age and not "his" age?

Did he state the number 18?

So, what he said had a lie, and the truth part was actually technically truthful, but in combination with the lie and the piece of paper, came off sounding like the lie was true? Is that the general idea? (You don't need to get technical - just is that the general idea?) Yes (but I like to get technical :p)

Is the 18 the age he wanted the recruiter to believe he was? He wanted the recruiter to believe he was qualified for which he had to be at least 18.

(You know, you really cheated on that. In fact, I had it in my head that he didn't write an age. Of course, looking back, you only said he didn't write "his" age, not "an" age.) Well, there we get back to semantics. It wasn't his age. Plus, it was just a number he wrote. This was shortly after we had talked about how much to give away.


Does this mean he stated "an" age and not "his" age? It was all in how he stated it.

Did he state the number 18? Yes, and it's been established he said the number plus other words.

I feel like we are running out of time to solve this so I need to give more info in my answers, like the one directly above. :o

Quote:

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(You know, you really cheated on that. In fact, I had it in my head that he didn't write an age. Of course, looking back, you only said he didn't write "his" age, not "an" age.) Well, there we get back to semantics. It wasn't his age. Plus, it was just a number he wrote. This was shortly after we had talked about how much to give away.

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Oh, I wasn't commenting on how you answered it. I see that you never answered it incorrectly. I just didn't "catch it." The whole puzzle is deceiving, and I imagine difficult to answer from your side, like how literally to take things, etc. I really don't like too much being given away, especially early into the puzzle.

But you're right that we're running out of time. Guess you didn't expect this to take so long. :p Doesn't help that I got caught up with some stuff after work and couldn't get back to this.

I guess it's just a matter of figuring out what it was he said besides the 18, how he said it, and what the reference to the paper was. We've kind of got the idea of what happened, just not the detail of what he said. Do you think I'm right on this? That we've got the idea and just need to come up with exactly what he said?

And I can't think of anything really tricky, other than something simple like "I wrote 18 on this piece of paper, and that is how old I am." Which is dumb. (It fulfills the requirements that we've established, but it's still dumb.) I guess I'm trying to take the idea in that dumb statement and find a way to say it in a really good, deceptive sort of way.

Well, I'll think upon it. Maybe Unky will have an idea. I don't even know what to ask, unless something I said above is incorrect. I would say... if you want to give some hints, go ahead. If you need to get to bed or you too busy with last-minute packing or whatever, just give it away. Do whatever you need to do.

And if I don't have time before you take off, I'll say now to have yourself a good wedding and a wonderfully terrific honeymoon. And I hope new hubby keeps you busy enough that you're not tempted to "sneak on" and see what's going on. :D

Okay, stupid guess--but does he just say "I am 18"--but means the number on the paper (his number in line or something) and not his age? So he's telling the truth when he says he's 18--just lying that he's 18 years of age.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by morgaine300

I guess it's just a matter of figuring out what it was he said besides the 18, how he said it, and what the reference to the paper was. We've kind of got the idea of what happened, just not the detail of what he said. Do you think I'm right on this? That we've got the idea and just need to come up with exactly what he said? I know you are close. It would help a lot to figure out where the paper is.

And I can't think of anything really tricky, other than something simple like "I wrote 18 on this piece of paper, and that is how old I am." Which is dumb. (It fulfills the requirements that we've established, but it's still dumb.) I guess I'm trying to take the idea in that dumb statement and find a way to say it in a really good, deceptive sort of way.

Well, I'll think upon it. Maybe Unky will have an idea. I don't even know what to ask, unless something I said above is incorrect. I would say.... if you want to give some hints, go ahead. If you need to get to bed or you too busy with last-minute packing or whatever, just give it away. Do whatever you need to do. I'm working on cleaning, laundry, and packing - and just checking in here on occasion. I'm pretty well ready.

And if I don't have time before you take off, I'll say now to have yourself a good wedding and a wonderfully terrific honeymoon. And I hope new hubby keeps you busy enough that you're not tempted to "sneak on" and see what's going on. :D

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Haha, thanks for the well wishes. I'm sure I won't be coming on here for the next few weeks. :)