Riddle me this, fools

[Mr. DNA]

Imagine that you are walking along a path in the forest of life and that you come to a T junction. You have been told that one path leads to happiness, health and prosperity - but the other will bring a life of misery and sorrow. (Very similar to the only path available to anyone who doesn't do the ethics form!). Immediately opposite is a small cottage occupied by identical twin brothers. However the brothers are only physically identical. One brother always tells the truth whereas the other always tells lies. You are allowed to knock the door and ask only one question of whichever brother answers the door. Obviously you do not know which brother is which. What one question do you ask to determine the correct path?

The answer can easily be found with a small amount of intelligent googling, but you'd be doing yourselves a disservice if you stooped so such lowly levels of cheating.

[bman3k]

Can't you like ask what colour some green grass or something is? The liar has to say something other than green while the truth teller will obviously tell the truth.

[Comrade]

Is my hair green and do i take the left path?

My hair isn't green, so you should know which is which.

[Mr. DNA]

That's two questions. You are allowed to ask one question and one question only.

[Crazy Hobo]

Yeah I would ask something like, What color is the sky?

[Comrade]

How does that tell you which road to take?


Is the road i take the one with the sky that's green?

[Mr. DNA]

How does that tell you which road to take?


Is the road i take the one with the sky that's green?

Again, how's that going to give you the correct path?

[Comrade]

Because if he says no, then i take the other path.:chuckle:

Yeah, that's stupid.

[Mr. DNA]

Yeah, that's stupid.

Just a tad! :D

There is a sensible and not-at-all impossible answer to this riddle, and it's not a trick question or anything. It's doable, but it's tough.

[Cavalier!]

Which path would your brother say is the correct one?

[Mrmakee]

Knock on the door ask "Is my hair green?" Wait for them to close the door, knock again. Then ask which is the correct path. Depending on the first answer you know which is right.

It never says how many times you can knock on the door.

[Zohaib]

You'll ask them "If I ask your brother, which path will he tell me is the right one". The one who always tells the truth will say "the wrong path" because thats what his brother would say. While his brother would also say the wrong path because he is lying..

Therefore you'll take the path which they did not choose..

[Cavalier!]

Thats basically what i said Zohaib except in a bit more detail

[Zohaib]

Woops. I kind of didn't read any of the replies...

[Mr. DNA]

Yeah, you've both sort of got it, just worded differently from the one I have. Here's the correct answer:

You'd ask the brother that answered the door the following question: "which way would your brother point to if he was pointing towards misery and sorrow?"

If you were to ask the liar this question, then, because his brother would tell the truth and point towards misery and sorrow, he'd lie to me and point towards health and prosperity.

If I asked the truthful one the same question, he'd also point towards the good path, because he knows that his brother would lie and point in this direction.

[dean wars]

how about asking this. "could u go that way (points at either of the 2 paths) and come back 1 hour later?" if he comes back all happy and cheerful, then that would be the right way. if he was depressed and has a frown on his face then thats the wrong path.

[Zohaib]

Ofcourse he could just answer "no" and not go anywhere.

[Conscience]

This one's pretty old. Of course, you could just ask Chuck Norris