nice “puzzle”
Excerpt from Born, A., Hurkens, C.A.J., Woeginger, G. (2008). The Freudenthal problem and its ramifications (Part III). Bulletin of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science, 95, 201-219.
Originally from G. Gamow and M. Stern (1958). Puzzle-Math. Macmillan, London.
During the Nazi occupation of France four passengers were riding
in a compartment of a train rolling from Paris to Marseille: A young
and very good-looking girl, an old lady, an officer of the German occupation
forces, and a middle-aged Frenchman of indefinite profession.
None of them knew any of the others, and no conversation was
started while the train was moving south. As the train entered a tunnel,
the electric lights in the car failed, and for several minutes the four
passengers were sitting in complete darkness. Suddenly there was the
sound of a kiss, followed by the sound of the impact of somebody’s
fist against somebody’s face.When the train came out of the tunnel, the positions of the passengers
were unchanged, but the German officer had a large bruise
under his eye. The old lady thought: “Serves him right. French girls
know how to defend themselves against the Boches.” The young girl
thought: “This German has a strange taste. Instead of kissing me,
he kissed the old hag. Well, he got what he deserved.” The German
held his hand against his injured eye, and thought: “The Frenchman
tried to kiss the girl, and when she struck out in the darkness, she
accidentally hit me in the face.”The problem is to find out what the Frenchman thought, and what
actually had happened.
The french guy kissed himself and beat the german up.
The kiss was an excuse to beat the german.
Comment by cactus — May 20, 2009 @ 1:17 pm