Summer Picnic Puzzle

It's an established fact that 75% of children lie when questioned about something bad that happened.

Mom has 4 children -- Bobby, Tina, Tommy, and Suzie. Mommy walks into the kitchen, where she finds all 4 of the kids looking down on a shattered cookie jar. Mommy asks them each to explain what happened.

* Bobby says he saw Tina do it.
* Tina says Suzie bragged about doing it and getting away with it.
* Tommy says he didn't do it.
* Suzie says it has to be Bobby that did it. Besides, he was by himself in the kitchen right before it happened.

Who broke the cookie jar?

"It's an established fact that 75% of children lie when questioned about something bad that happened.

Mom has 4 children -- Bobby, Tina, Tommy, and Suzie. Mommy walks into the kitchen, where she finds all 4 of the kids looking down on a shattered cookie jar. Mommy asks them each to explain what happened.

* Bobby says he saw Tina do it.
* Tina says Suzie bragged about doing it and getting away with it.
* Tommy says he didn't do it.
* Suzie says it has to be Bobby that did it. Besides, he was by himself in the kitchen right before it happened.

Who broke the cookie jar?”
____________________________________

Tina, Tommy, and Suzie say one of the others did the dastardly deed. Bobby’s the only child that says he actually saw someone (Tina) do it. Since there are only three liars, all four of them can't be telling the truth which means all are lying except GB who actually saw Tina shatter the cookie jar, which makes Tina the guilty child. (my best guess)
.

Alphabet/Word Challenge

Assuming the above answer's correct, here's an alphabet/word challenge.

So, using the same calculator position, how many words can you make?

Legend:

0 = O/o

1 = i/I

2 = z/Z (?)

3 = E/e

4 = h

5 = S/s

6 = ?

7 = L

8 = ?

9 = ?

Eh?

You're next....

Originally posted by sumydid
It's an established fact that 75% of children lie when questioned about something bad that happened.

Mom has 4 children -- Bobby, Tina, Tommy, and Suzie. Mommy walks into the kitchen, where she finds all 4 of the kids looking down on a shattered cookie jar. Mommy asks them each to explain what happened.

* Bobby says he saw Tina do it.
* Tina says Su ...[text shortened]... sides, he was by himself in the kitchen right before it happened.

Who broke the cookie jar?

It's not Tommy. If Tommy did it, then he's a liar, but that means that all the others are lyingt too and that's not possible. Tommy didn't do it and he's telling the truth.

One of the other three have to be telling the truth. Which one could it be?

I have a problem with rest of the problem. It doesn't make sense to me that Suzie says that Bobby was in the kitchen by himself right before it happened. That's plausible, but it doesn't account for "when" it happened.

So, as to when it happened, all three stories are plausible.

Remember, all three are liars. Therefore, Bobby did not see Tina do it.
Tina did not hear Suzie brag about doing it or getting away with it. Suzie doen't know that it has to be Bobby that did it, nor is it true that he was in the kitchen alone right before it happened.

What if?

Bobby did it . . . it's plausible.
Tina did it . . . plausible.
Suzie did it . . .plausible.

2

Surely kids only lie about something bad when they are guilty?

Not by this wording.. guess it's a stress thing?

The 75% rule.. well, I suppose it's a small world with only four children in it.

Let's see the possibilities..
* Bobby tells the truth, everybody else lies; doesn't work, if there is only one culprit. Tina and Tommy would've both been guilty.
* Tina tells the truth, everybody else lies. Works. Bobby didn't see Tina, Suzie did brag, Bobby was in the living room with all day, listening to Suzie brag. Tommy did it.
* Tommy tells the truth, and is innocent, everybody else lies. Plausible. Bobby didn't see Tina, Tina didn't hear Suzie brag, Suzie's observation is false. It doesn't have to be Bobby, and he wasn't in the kitchen alone. Anyone but Tommy can be guilty.
* Suzie tells the truth, everybody else lies. Plausible. It was in fact Tommy, who was standing right by the vase when the slingshot from the hall, fired by Tommy, broke the vase. Tina covers up for him. Bobby lies to get Tina in trouble because he's annoyed at Tina giving false testimony about his saintly girlfrield Suzie.

So.. the only thing we know for sure is that Bobby is a liar.

Originally posted by talzamir
Not by this wording.. guess it's a stress thing?

The 75% rule.. well, I suppose it's a small world with only four children in it.

Let's see the possibilities..
* Bobby tells the truth, everybody else lies; doesn't work, if there is only one culprit. Tina and Tommy would've both been guilty.
* Tina tells the truth, everybody else lies. Works. Bobby d ...[text shortened]... y girlfrield Suzie.

So.. the only thing we know for sure is that Bobby is a liar.

What,

They were all in the kitchen, and they all broke it.
Bobby is telling the truth.

Originally posted by sumydid
It's an established fact that 75% of children lie when questioned about something bad that happened.

Mom has 4 children -- Bobby, Tina, Tommy, and Suzie. Mommy walks into the kitchen, where she finds all 4 of the kids looking down on a shattered cookie jar. Mommy asks them each to explain what happened.

* Bobby says he saw Tina do it.
* Tina says Su sides, he was by himself in the kitchen right before it happened.

Who broke the cookie jar?

If Tommy is a liar, HE did it. Therefore, Tommy must be telling the truth for it to be anyone else. For Tommy to be telling the truth, all the others would have to be lying. They can't all by lying because in order for Tommy to be telling the truth ONE of the others would have to be telling the truth.

Therefore, Tommy MUST be lying. And since he must be lying, he must be the one that did it.

Tommy is guilty as sin.

Or let me put it another way. For anyone other than Tommy to be telling the truth, that would make Tommy a liar which means he did it. But, if anyone other than Tommy is telling the truth, that means that someone OTHER than Tommy did it.

The only way to avoid a logical contradiction is to deem Tommy a liar; once that is determined, anyone else's testimony is unnecessary.

Let me explain what I means by, Bobby is telling the truth and they all did it:

Bobby says he saw Tina do it. -
= Yep, in fact he saw everyone do it including himself and Tina.

Tina says Suzie bragged about doing it and getting away with it.
= Nope, Suzie has not bragged

Tommy says he didn't do it.
= Nope, he broke it, along with everyone else

Suzie says it has to be Bobby that did it. Besides, he was by himself in the kitchen right before it happened.
= Nope, Bobby was not by himself, they were all there

so 75% of the childeren are lying, AND they all have very good motivation to lie, Bobby has been cunning and found a true statement which deflects the blame from himself and there are no logical contradictions at all.