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Sun 3 Nov, 2002 03:55 pm
In a far away land, it was known that if you drank poison, the only way to save yourself is to drink a stronger poison, which neutralizes the weaker poison. The king that ruled the land wanted to make sure that he possessed the strongest poison in the kingdom, in order to ensure his survival, in any situation. So the king called the kingdom's pharmacist and the kingdom's treasurer, he gave each a week to make the strongest poison. Then, each would drink the other one's poison, then his own, and the one that will survive, will be the one that had the stronger potion.
The pharmacist went straight to work, but the treasurer knew he had no chance, for the pharmacist was much more experienced in this field, so instead, he made up a plan to survive and make sure the pharmacist dies. On the last day the pharmacist suddenly realized that the treasurer would know he had no chance, so he must have a plan. After a little thought, the pharmacist realized what the treasurer's plan must be, and he concocted a counter plan, to make sure he survives and the treasurer dies. When the time came, they king summoned both of them. They drank the potions as planned, and the treasurer died, the pharmacist survived, and the king didn't get what he wanted.
What exactly happened there?
The pharmacist, knowing that he is going to make the strongest poison, and since the stronger is not existing, he is going to die....made one, but not the strongest. The strongest he didn't gave to the pharmacist, but saved it for himself. The treasurer???? His plan I don't know, but that he perhaps try to switch the bottles containing poison....hmmm....doubt that is the solution.....
ups....didn't gave to treasurer, but saved it.....sorry for mistake!
Oh dear....can't figure out REALLY anything about treasurer's plan, except that he might switch the bottles somehow.
Seems that anyone else is trying to solve this one...and who is that guy that knows all the answers to your riddles? Want to meet him!!!!! :wink:
Now Craven, be a sport and give me a hint...the pharmacist is not a problem, but the treasurer!
Oh, missed this one.
The pharmacist figured out that the treasurer would purposely make the weaker potion, and then take the pharmacist's potion to counteract it, but there would be no potion stronger than the pharmacist's, so the pharmacist would die. So the pharmacist made an especially weak potion, even weaker than the treasurer's, and the pharmacist was able to use the treasurer's potion as an antidote.
Meanwhile, since the battle was for weakest, not strongest, the king didn't get what he wanted.
That seems unnecessarily complicated.
(And Alexandra, Chib is just some guy who figured these things out at some point, who knows how long it took hm -- you realize that in a while Craven will be posting these saying "Alexandra can't play!".
)
Hmmm.. I think you left out a step Soz. If the Treasurer's was stronger than the pharmacists's then the Treasurer would have lived and the Pharmacist would have died. Whatever the pharmacist brought in couldn't have been poison at all.
Now if the pharmacist actually made 2 potions and took one before entering the room and had the 2nd that isn't really a poison at all...
The pharmacist would have taken the Treasurer's as an antidote to the one he had taken before entering and then his 2nd which had no poison at all. So he'd be all set.
The treasurer would take the Pharmacist's 2nd "non-poison" which would have had no effect, and then his own. With no counter to his own he would have killed himself.
The King would then be left with a totally non-poisonous "poison".
(Maybe that's actually what Soz was saying and I misread????)
Right, right, I forgot the part about that they have to drink the other's first, then their own... so the treasurer makes a weakER poison than what he expects the pharmacist to make, the pharmacist just brings water...
Wait, that doesn't make sense, because they both drink both "potions", and I don't think there's a third potion allowed in the equation. If they both have one drink of weak-but-fatal poison, and one drink of non-poison, they both die. (And if there were two non-poisonous potions, the treasurer wouldn't have died.) So the pharmacist's own concoction had to have been stronger than the treasurer's.
He he, have fun guys. This is a "lateral thinking"one so there are multiple answers that are possible.
The pharmacxist made an all-round antidote
The pharmacist realized the treasurer would switch bottles, so in her room she put to bottles, one said me the other said treasurer. The 'me' bottle contained a poison (regular poison), and the 'treasurer' bottle contained a yummy liquid (lemonade for example
) that had the color of the real poison
I agree with fishin's answer, sort of. The treasurer assumes that the pharmacist's poison is going to be real and strong. And the treasurer can't really make a good poison, so we can guess he's not coming in with poison at all. I think the treasurer brought water, but took poison before he got there hoping for the following outcome:
The treasurer takes poison first, gets there, drinks the pharmacist poison (saving him), then drinks his own water - thereby saving the treasurer.
But, the pharmacist knew this - so he brought water too. Outcome:
The pharmacist drinks the treasurers water, then his own water - living.
The king ends up with water.
That is the answer I was looking for. :-)
They were both poisened. The pharmacist spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocane powder.
@Craven de Kere,
He gave the treasurer water and since it wasn't an acid whaen he drank the kings acid nothing could combat it so he died
!!!!
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