Room filling with water

Either guard will do and it doesn't matter. Your statement doesn't say the lying guard won't let you out! Just say, "let me out of here". This does not require a vocal response from either guard and you will be free to walk merrily on dry land again!

Or you could ask, "is the room filling with water".

The answer is a very old and venerable one. It doesn't matter which of the two you ask as long as the question is structured this way:

"If I asked the other guard which door leads to safety which one would he indicate/say it was?".

*sigh* Not this question again...

I agree with NickFun that the question only says the doors are guarded, but not how you are going to get past the guard. Also, the question states "there are two doors to choose from to get out of the room" which implies to me at least that both doors get you out of the room. Even if they don't, nothing is stopping you from opening the other door. And I'm sure the guards don't want to drown, are they in the room with you too? Then just follow them out when they leave.

Sorry, GaNew. We've been confronted with this riddle so many times that the answer you want no longer amuses us.

As usual I feel I should stress that you do not need to mention the other guard as you phrase your question. It is the use of the subjunctive case which makes both the liar and the honest guard give the same response. The subjunctive case creates an additional item to either lie or tell the truth about, thus if you make the sentence doubly subjunctive you will again receive inconclusive results. It is very similar to the math priciple of -1 raised to the nth power. The answer to your question will reverse value on every consecutive "power" of subjunctivity. Here are some examples:

"If I ask you if this is the correct door, will you say 'yes'." (conclusive results)

"If I asked you what you would say if I asked you if this is the correct door, would you say 'yes'." (inconclusive results)


"If I asked you what you would say, if I ask you what you will say if I asked you if this is the correct door, would you say 'yes'." (conclusive results)

But of course the liar guard could always answer "I don't know what I would say" since that would be a lie (he indeed does know what he would say) and would prove totally useless to you.

The free radical in this riddle is the possiblilty of a lawyer guard, due to a spelling error.

lmao, sorry, next time I'll make the question harder, and be more precise

I am actually looking forward to more posts from GaNew.

I'll get right on it


<--- nice

I also have to ask, why are you in a guarded room? You must be a prisoner of some sort. Perhaps the room filling with water is a way of making you talk. In this case, talking to either guard won't help unless you are willing to cooperate.

it's messed up, the first answer was the same as mine.


my girlfriend asked me it cause her boss asked everyone at work... now she tells me there is more to it and keeps adding things. I gave up trying to make sense of it.

I like this response, but I don't get it. What phrase allows for a lawyer?

I believe this kind of punishment was dished out at Abu Ghirab - except ALL the guards lied all the time!

But they wouldn't lie to each other. The trick is to get one guard to ask the other guard a question. Something like, "Is what he said about your mother true?" would work nicely.