Two suspects, A and B, are on trial for shoplifting. Four witnesses are called in during the trial. Below are the witnesses’ testimonies.
1st witness: I know A is innocent!
2nd witness: I know B is innocent!
3rd witness: The facts presented by the first and second witnesses are true.
4th witness: I am very certain that the third witness is lying!
If only the 4th witness is telling the truth, which suspect(s) is/are guilty of shoplifting?
A and B.
I don't know
Let me explain. If only the fourth witness is telling the truth, then it means that the first three witnesses are lying. So, we cannot trust their testimonies. Therefore, we cannot conclude anything about the guilt or innocence of either suspect based on the given information. We would need more evidence and testimonies to make a fair judgment.
To solve this problem, let's analyze the testimonies one by one:
1. The 1st witness claims that A is innocent. However, we cannot immediately conclude anything from this testimony alone.
2. The 2nd witness claims that B is innocent. As with the 1st witness, we cannot make any conclusions based solely on this statement.
3. The 3rd witness states that the first two witnesses are telling the truth. This means that both A and B are innocent according to the 3rd witness.
4. The 4th witness asserts that the 3rd witness is lying. If the 4th witness is telling the truth, it means that the 3rd witness is lying about both A and B being innocent. Therefore, at least one of the suspects must be guilty.
Based on the information provided by the witnesses, we can conclude that suspect A is guilty of shoplifting.
To arrive at this conclusion, we needed to evaluate the statements one by one, considering the accuracy of each witness's testimony. In this case, only the 4th witness is telling the truth, indicating that the other witnesses were either mistaken or intentionally lying. By examining all the witnesses' statements in this way, we can determine the guilty party.