In an Island the natives lie and visitors speak truth. A man wants to know whether a salesman beside him in a bar is a native or visitor. He asked him to ask a woman beside him whether she is a native or visitor. He replied "she says she is a visitor". Then he knew that the salesman is a native or visitor. salesman is in which category , native or visitor?

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Editorial / Best Answer

Answered by: avinash shetty

  • Jun 26th, 2007


The answer is he is a visitor i.e. he is telling the truth

Reason:
If he was a native i.e. a liar then his answer would would have been "she says she is a native" for both cases because
If she was visitor: she would have said she is a visitor and he would have lied that she is a native
If she was native: she would have lied and again say that she is a visitor and he would have lied that she is a native.

Best of luck bye

Showing Answers 1 - 27 of 27 Answers

avinash shetty

  • Jun 26th, 2007
 

The answer is he is a visitor i.e. he is telling the truth


Reason:
If he was a native i.e. a liar then his answer would would have been "she says
she is a native" for both cases because
If she was visitor: she would have said she is a visitor and he would have lied
that she is a native
If she was native: she would have lied and again say that she is a visitor and
he would have lied that she is a native.

Best of luck bye

pdsubbu

  • Dec 27th, 2007
 

the salesman says - "She says she is a visitor", which obviously means that he admits that she is a woman. So he is telling the truth. So the salesman is a visitor....

sandy142

  • Feb 25th, 2008
 

What avinash shetty says is absolutely tremendous concept.
Yes he is a visitor.
We can look in another manner
reason:
Salesmen replied
"She says she is a visitor". it means "salesman does not know that women".
Its proves that he does not belong to that island and he is outsider.

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What pdsubbu answered is simply brilliant..
No need of reasoning the question.
The salesman replies "she says she is a visitor", the man enquires about the woman and the salesman refers her as she which implies that sales man is saying truth and he is a visitor

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omanohar

  • Jul 28th, 2008
 

Four case can happen:
1. woman visitor, salesman visitor
In this case woman will say that "i am  vistor" and salesman will say" she is vistor'

2. woman native, salesman native
In this case woman will say " i am vistor" and salesman will say" she is native"

3. woman vistor, salesman native
In this case woman wil say " i am visitor" and salesman will say" she is native".

4. woman native, salesman visitor
Here woman says " i m visitor" , sales man says " she is visitor"

from the above 4 cases, only case 1 and case 4 holds good as here the salesman says"she is visitor" which is what the salesman says in the problem.

In both cases 1 and 4 , salesman is a vistor, so confirmed that salesman is a visitor.

phanikasum

  • Sep 10th, 2008
 

omanohar's solution is absolutely correct. Probably, the below table would also help to understand the solution (table is just for explanation). Take all possible combinations into consideration and check it's validity.


Salesman

Woman

Validity

True

Told: She is a visitor

Actual (told by woman): She is a visitor

True

Told (taken from salesman’s actual): She is a visitor

Actual: She is a visitor

Valid

True

Told: She is a visitor

Actual (told by woman): She is a visitor

False

Told (taken from salesman’s actual): She is a visitor

Actual: She is a native

Valid

False

Told: She is a visitor

Actual (told by woman): She is a native

True

Told (taken from salesman’s actual): She is a native

Actual: She is a native

Invalid as native doesn’t speak truth

False

Told: She is a visitor

Actual (told by woman): She is a native

False

Told (taken from salesman’s actual): She is a native

Actual: She is a visitor

Invalid as visitor doesn’t lie


In both the valid cases, salesman is saying truth. So, he is a visitor.

Other answers which said that the salesman identified her as a woman is incorrect. 
In these type of questions, we have to identify the main part for which True/False has to be applied (in this case, visitor-native). We can't just take any part (like, she-he, says-didn't say, is-was, etc). 

Thanks. 

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varunkakkar

  • Jan 24th, 2009
 

We know that the answer of the question that man asked was that "She is a visitor". Native will Lie and Visitors will speak truth. So we can assume that both Lady and Saleman could be visitor or Native. Basically there are 4 scenarios and the result after salesman has asked the question are:

Lady        Visitor Visitor Native Native
Salesman  Visitor Native Visitor Native
----------------------------------------
Result      Visitor Native Visitor Native


So in both the cases where we are getting the answer as Visitor the Salesman is also a Visitor. He is a visitor..


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ganeshbhat

  • Jan 14th, 2010
 

If the woman was a visitor then she would have accepted that she is a visitor
If the woman was a native then she would have lied that she is a visitor
so in either case the woman says she is a visitor

Hence when the man says that ' woman says she is a visitor' the man is telling the truth only,  thus the man is a visitor

vinay

  • Aug 23rd, 2011
 

The answer may be native, because without asking her the salesman said the answer, he says only in the condition when he is a liar, so liar means native

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