Another Puzzle: The Guy Who Stole Your Wallet

[The Armchair]

You're on the Island of Knights and Knaves. For those of you who have not yet visited, everyone on the island -- except you, of course -- is either a Knight or a Knave. Knights always tell the truth. Knaves always lie.

This leads to interesting predicaments.

One such predicament occurs at a local shrubbery. You are there with Fabio, a friend of yours whom you know to be a Knight. You sit a the bar (it's a fun shrubbery) and order a pint of something you'd rather not mention. But, as you reach into your pocket to pay the bartender/shrubber, you notice that your wallet is gone. Two people, Horatio and Monkeyhead are behind you, snickering.

Fabio immediately apologizes.

It seems that he accidentally brought you into the bar on some strange holiday that he doesn't quite understand, and whose details we will not share here. The important part is this:

One of these people stole your wallet. One of them is a knight. The other is a knave. Fabio is honor-bound to silence as to whom is whom. And local custom allows this duo of thieves to keep your wallet, unless you correctly accuse one of them of the theft. If you're wrong, you are jailed for a week. If you're right, you get your wallet back.

Of course, that is impossible -- you'd be making a blind guess. To make it a bit more fair, the local custom provides that you, the victim, may ask either person (that is, Horatio or Monkeyhead) any one question, and, after contemplating the answer, may make your accusation.

Pick your target (that is, Horatio or Monkeyhead) and tell me, what do you ask him? Please answer in white.

[aloiz]

Answer in white
<font color="white">
You ask either one "Could you ask your friend who took my wallet and tell me what he says?" Then accuse the opposite person.

</font>

aloiz

[SossMan]

My answer:

<font color="white">You direct your question to Horatio and ask him: "Horatio, if I asked Monkeyhead who stole my wallet, what would he say?"
If Horatio is a Knight, he will truthfully tell you that Monkeyhead will tell you the wrong person.
If Horatio is a Knave, he will lie to you and tell you that Monkeyhead will tell you the wrong person.
So, whatever Horatio says Monkeyhead will say, pick the opposite. </font>

[nolanfan34]

Here's my answer.

<font color="white">Doesn't matter who you ask. Simply ask them "Is Fabio a knight?" Since you know he's a knight for sure, if the person answers "yes", then they're telling the truth and the other person is the knave. If they answer "no", then they're lying and they're the culprit.</font>

How'd I do?

[Cyrus]

<font color="white"> what the other guy would respond if you were to ask him where is your wallet. Then do the opposite of what answer you get. .
.</font>
.
.
You come here often?

[The Armchair]

[ QUOTE ]
Answer in white
<font color="white">
You ask either one "Could you ask your friend who took my wallet and tell me what he says?" Then accuse the opposite person.

</font>

aloiz

[/ QUOTE ]

Your answer doesn't work. <font color="white"> Let's say MF is the Knight and he took your wallet, and you ask Horatio your question. MF says, "I took the wallet." Horatio replies to you that MF said "The crow flies at midnight."

Let's now assume that MF is the Knight but didn't took the wallet. MF says, "Well, you did, Horatio," and Horatio tells you that MF said "The crow flies at midnight."

I guess it works if you're sure that you can understand what MF says, but that's quite an unneccessary risk!

And not to nit-pick here, but there's really no way to ask your question to get the answer you want. By saying "Could you," you open the door to the hyper-literal "Yes, I could." These are theives, remember. If you don't put "Could you" in there, how do you make it a question?
</font>

[The Armchair]

[ QUOTE ]
Here's my answer.

<font color="white">Doesn't matter who you ask. Simply ask them "Is Fabio a knight?" Since you know he's a knight for sure, if the person answers "yes", then they're telling the truth and the other person is the knave. If they answer "no", then they're lying and they're the culprit.</font>

How'd I do?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think you understood the question. How does that help?

[The Armchair]

See my reply to aloiz. I'm sure a knave would say something like "potato." Other than that, it works.

But you can do better.

[nolanfan34]

Whoops, I assumed only the knave could steal the wallet. So my answer would identify the knave.

Given that either could steal it...I'll think about that.

[The Armchair]

Just to be clear, given the answers so far, the knave always lies, but that's a pretty liberal job. To wit, if he's asked what he ate for breakfast, and the choices were eggs or bacon, he is entirely allowed to answer "french toast," as it would be a lie.

[jwvdcw]

[ QUOTE ]
Here's my answer.

<font color="white">Doesn't matter who you ask. Simply ask them "Is Fabio a knight?" Since you know he's a knight for sure, if the person answers "yes", then they're telling the truth and the other person is the knave. If they answer "no", then they're lying and they're the culprit.</font>

How'd I do?

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah but that tells you nothing about who has your wallet!

[jwvdcw]

<font color="white"> You ask one of them what the other person would say when asked 'who has the wallet?'. Then you pick the opposite person.</font>

[The Armchair]

[ QUOTE ]
You ask one of them what the other person would say when asked 'who has the wallet?'. Then you pick the opposite person.

[/ QUOTE ]

Same problem. If you ask the knave, then you'd be in a situation where he'd "interpret" the knight's answer. The knight would say either "Horatio" or "Monkeyhead" (or is it Monkeyface, I forget). The knave could then legitimately reply "Potato."

[aloiz]

So if you were to ask the knave if he was a knave, a valid response would be "potato", which would then be considered a lie?

aloiz

[TheMile]

<font color="white"> Ask one of them, "Did the knave steal my wallet?" If he says no, he's the culprit. If he says yes, it's the other guy.</font>

[nolanfan34]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Here's my answer.

<font color="white">Doesn't matter who you ask. Simply ask them "Is Fabio a knight?" Since you know he's a knight for sure, if the person answers "yes", then they're telling the truth and the other person is the knave. If they answer "no", then they're lying and they're the culprit.</font>

How'd I do?

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah but that tells you nothing about who has your wallet!

[/ QUOTE ]

As I mentioned in a follow up post, I assumed only the knave could steal the wallet. What's a knight doing stealing a wallet anyway?

[ThaSaltCracka]

I will assume you know who is who in regards to Horatio and Monkeyhead, my guess: <font color="white"> ask Horatio if the other guys name is Monkeyhead. If he says yes, than he is the knight, and he didn't take your wallet. If he says no, then he is the knave, and he stole your wallet. </font>

[The Armchair]

No, that'd be non-responsive.

[The Armchair]

That's correct. Good job.