Deceit

Acknowledgments

I’d like to thank Kristen Weber and David Shelley for their wise editing; and various reporters I spoke to during the writing of this book, in an effort to get things right.

Once there were two villages.

One village where they always told the truth.

Another village where they always lied.

One day a traveler came to a fork in the road. He knew one road led to the village where they always told the truth. In this village he would find food and shelter. The other road led to the village where everyone lied. In that village he knew he’d be beaten, robbed, even killed. A man stood at the fork in this road, but the traveler didn’t know which village this man came from. The one where they always told the truth, or the one where they always lied?

“You can ask me one question,” the man said. “Just one.”

The traveler thought and pondered and finally he knew which question to ask.

He pointed to the left road and said: “Is this the road to your village?”

“Yes,” the man answered him.

The traveler nodded, said thank you, and started down the road.

He knew if he was addressing a man from the village where they always told the truth, then it was of course the road to the right village. And if he were addressing someone from the village of liars, then the man would have to lie and say yes as well.

Whether the man was the liar or the truth-teller, he would give exactly the same answer.