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Lateral Thinking - Preconceptions
three spies

 
Sun Jan 26, 2014 9:29 am  by deedeebew@gmail.com

Three spies, suspected as double agents, speak as follows when questioned:

Albert: "Bertie is a mole."
Bertie: "Cedric is a mole."
Cedric: "Bertie is lying."

Assuming that moles lie, other agents tell the truth, and there is just one mole among the three, determine:

1.) Who is the mole?
2.) If, on the other hand there are two moles present, who are they
 
   
Wed Feb 05, 2014 1:54 am  by Nsj

Too obvious.

1. Bertie
2. Albert + Cedric

Bertie and Cedric are contradicting each other, so they must be on different sides.
 
   
Wed Jan 14, 2015 2:29 pm  by ashwin

1. Bertie
2. bertie cedric
 
   
Wed Jun 10, 2015 9:29 pm  by oncemoreforluck

cedric is the mole.
 
   
Tue Jul 07, 2015 4:56 pm  by lateral

How else would he know what bertie said and be able to say she was lying!!!
 
   
Sun Aug 09, 2015 9:35 pm  by chammont

So Nsj is correct but I'd like to expand on the explanation. This is a "if then" logic problem. So Let's start with the assumption that Albert is not a mole. If Albert is not a mole and therefor always tells the truth then Bertie is a mole. If Bertie is a mole and therefor always lies then Cedric is not a mole. If Cedric is not a mole then Bertie is Lying which confirms he is a mole. In this case there is just one mole who is Bertie. But if we assume that Albert is a mole and therefor always lies then Bertie can not be a mole. If Bertie is not a mole then Cedric is a mole. If Cedric is a mole then Bertie must be telling the truth which confirms he is not a mole. So in this case you have 2 moles which are Albert and Cedric. So those are the two answers just like Nsj said. I also wanted to clarify something in case anyone was confused. With this information it's not possible to know if there is one or two moles. You can only know who the mole(s) is/are if you know whether you are looking for one mole or two.
 
   
Fri Jan 01, 2016 5:58 pm  by marsway

1. Bertie
2. Albert + Cedric
 
   
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