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in a far away land, it was known that if you drank poison...

 
Tue Nov 30, 2010 7:13 am  by tartle

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 sage, 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 poison.
The pharmacist went straight to work, but the sage 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 sage would know he had no chance, so he must have a plan. After a little thought, the pharmacist realized what the sage's plan must be, and he concocted a counter plan, to make sure he survives and the sage dies. When the time came, the king summoned both of them. They drank the poisons as planned, and the sage died, the pharmacist survived, and the king didn't get what he wanted.
What exactly happened there?
 
   
Fri Aug 02, 2013 5:18 pm  by mythreya

The sage's plan:

He made a weak poison and drank it just before the test. During the test time, he would drink the stronger poison which he thinks the pharmacist would have made. Meanwhile, he takes a non-poisonous drink to the test and presents it as his poison. In this case the pharmacist would drink it and then drink his own poison and die.


The pharmacist's plan:

He knows that the sage is going to drink a weak poison before the test and that he is going to present a non-poisonous drink. So the pharmacist counters this by presenting a non-poisonous drink too effectively disabling the sage from countering the poison he consumed earlier.
 
   
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