In a Far Away Land, it Was Known That If You Drank Poison...

15. In a Far Away Land, it Was Known That If You Drank Poison...

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?

Submitted by tartle · Added 29 November 2010 · Updated 5 July 2026

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Solution:

The sage's plan was to drink a weak poison prior to the meeting with the king, and then he would drink the pharmacist's strong poison, which would neutralize the weak poison. As his own poison he would bring water, which will have no effect on him, but the pharmacist who would drink the water, and then his poison would surely die. When the pharmacist figured out this plan, he decided to bring water as well. So the sage who drank poison earlier, drank the pharmacist's water, then his own water, and died of the poison he drank before. The pharmacist would drink only water, so nothing will happen to him. And because both of them brought the king water, he didn't get a strong poison like he wanted.

Comments (1)

mythreya 2 August 2013

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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