I received one answer by email to my last puzzle; it was right. Congratulations, Presbytera! I’ll post the answer now in the comments section. Here is another riddle:

There are five thieves who have just robbed a traveler of 100 gold pieces. Now they have to divide up the booty. All five abide by a Code with the following stipulations:

• All decisions are made my majority vote. The losers all die.
• The eldest keeps proposing whatever is to be voted upon, until a proposal passes.
• In case of a tie, the side with the eldest member wins.

So what should the eldest propose to ensure that he walks away with the most gold pieces? You can assume that all the thieves will vote out of pure self-interest; none will sacrifice himself to hurt another. Moreover, every thief knows this about every other thief.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 28th, 2007 at 10:42 am and is filed under Logismoi.
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