In a certain village, there are 50 couples. As it turns out, everyone in the village is having an affair. This despite a particularly gruesome custom which requires a wife, upon discovering that her husband is having an affair, to kill him the following morning. Even more oddly, the women in the town talk quite freely about their activities! In fact they are all perfectly aware that any woman who is having an affair will tell EVERY other woman in the village except, of course, for the wife of the man with whom they are having the affair. Yet life there goes on quite peacefully since no woman can know for sure that her husband is actually having an affair. One day, a well revered wise man visits the village and announces that someone is having an affair. What happens after this?
2006-08-18 06:29:03 · 8 answers · asked by amit k 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
Every women eventually kills their husbands in line with the custom and since the newcomer man is the only single man in the village now .. he starts having grusome time satisfying all widows :) .. he will remain single and keep satisfying all widows to remain alive ... :)
2006-08-21 21:56:21 · answer #1 · answered by TJ 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Nothing for the first 49 nights. On the 50th night, all the men are killed by their wives.
Why? Consider if only one woman were having an affair. All but the wife of the woman having the affair would know about it. Therefore, if someone were having an affair, it would be a shock to only one person and that person would also realize that the reason she didn't know was because the person having the affair was her husband.
If two men were having an affair? All the women in the town know except the wives of the two. They think there's only one person's husband having an affair and they know how that person will react - they'll kill their husband on the first night. When that doesn't happen, there can be only one reason. The other wife knew of at least one woman's husband having an affair. That means a second wife's husband is having an affair - and it must be her husband since she'd know if the second man were somebody else's husband.
Three men. Three wives think the previous scenario will happen on the second night. The only reason it doesn't is that both of the other wives knew two men were having an affair AND didn't know that their husband was one of them. That means her husband must be the third. All three kill their husbands the third night.
And so on and so on.
I always love these scenarios with perfectly logical, smart people who have absolutely no common sense. After all 50 men die, the women and children starve because the village's subsistence was based on the mens ability to hunt. Plus they don't know how to pick well revered wise men. If the man were so wise, he would have known better than to say something sure to result in the village's extinction.
2006-08-18 14:13:33 · answer #2 · answered by Bob G 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Nothing, you never stated that any of the couples were married. Thus, no wives and also no husbands to kill the next day. The wise man is also safe, unless he has a wife and she finds out he is having an affair!
2006-08-18 17:07:06 · answer #3 · answered by meton0 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Nothing happens. Everyone in the village is having an affair so the wise man adds no additional information.
Life goes on
2006-08-18 18:45:48 · answer #4 · answered by Deven K 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
nothing....all of the wives already know of 49 affairs going on, so they think nothing of it. As long as the wiseman doesnt name a name, then no one would get killed.
If he did name a name, then only that man would be killed.
2006-08-18 14:09:09 · answer #5 · answered by theman 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
The men will all be killed in 50 days.
2006-08-18 14:11:28 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
The wise man announces that bad writers should be persecuted for wasting everyone's time.
2006-08-18 13:42:08 · answer #7 · answered by B391 2 · 2⤊ 4⤋
he gets killed.
2006-08-18 13:42:40 · answer #8 · answered by a_liberal_economist 3 · 0⤊ 5⤋