City Council

A certain city is entirely inhabited by knights and liars. Knights, consistently chivalrous, always tell the truth. Liars, on the contrary, never tell the truth. One can never tell whether a citizen is a knight or a liar just by their appearance.

The city council, recently elected, is composed of twelve of the city’s most eminent inhabitants. One day they come together to a council meeting. They all recognize each other and know which members of the group are knights and which are liars.

The first councilmember states: “None of the people in this room tells the truth.”

The second councilmember says: “Not more than 1 person in this room tells the truth.”

The third councilmember asserts: “Not more than 2 people in this room tell the truth.”

The rest of the councilmembers continue the pattern, ending with the twelfth, who says: “Not more than 11 people in this room tell the truth.”

How many knights and how many liars are on the city council?

The solution can be found here. Happy puzzling!

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