Poll of the Day > Can you solve this dilemma?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Tomorrow a group of super-wealthy businessmen get together and present you with an offer. If you intend to drink a cup of poison tomorrow they will give you $10,000,000. The money will be sent to your bank account instantly but won't be cleared for use until the day after tomorrow. The poison itself will not likely kill you but will make you throw up, have painful headaches, and all that nice stuff for about a day. However, there's a catch. This offer exists only so long as you intend to drink the poison, but don't actually drink the poison. If you drink the poison than the money will be taken away from you. You must actually intend to drink the poison to get it in the first place though.

Can you figure out some way to get the money?
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By intending to drink the poison?
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Easy. Seduction.

wwinterj25 posted...

By intending to drink the poison?

But then if you drink it you lose the money.
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Unbridled9 posted...

But then if you drink it you lose the money.

Intending to do something doesn't actually mean you're going to do it.
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The problem with the scenario is that the businessmen would also need to possess a means of telepathically reading my mind to confirm my intent beforehand.


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what a stupid topic
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thot crime logic
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I'll choose to drink the poison and then tomorrow I'll change my mind
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I will drink the poison but what's this some random guy/girl/shim has decided to smack and break the vial/cup before I get to drink it

Too bad so sad , **** you pay me
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So I have to attempt to drink it but something has to stop me.

I could tell an SO or parent of the deal and they'll stop me while I attempt to drink it.

pay a ninja to add in extra cups of liquid so I don't know which is the poison and the only way to find out is to drink

Get extremely drunk before or somehow impair my motor skills so I spill it or something.

Tell other people about the deal so they drink the poison before I get a chance to
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Easy. I'd show up late or forget where to go. Or I'd empty the poison today so I wouldn't be able to drink it to tomorrow. But, more realistically:

ParanoidObsessive posted...

The problem with the scenario is that the businessmen would also need to possess a means of telepathically reading my mind to confirm my intent beforehand.

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JOExHIGASHI posted...

So I have to attempt to drink it but something has to stop me.

I could tell an SO or parent of the deal and they'll stop me while I attempt to drink it.

pay a ninja to add in extra cups of liquid so I don't know which is the poison and the only way to find out is to drink

Get extremely drunk before or somehow impair my motor skills so I spill it or something.

Tell other people about the deal so they drink the poison before I get a chance to

Of course, if you did that, you never intended to drink the poison in the first place, so you wouldn't get the money.
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Backlog. Done.
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Unbridled9 posted...

Of course, if you did that, you never intended to drink the poison in the first place, so you wouldn't get the money.

The sort of friends I have would probably figure it out and stop me, without my explicitly asking them to. It would probably be quite a show for the business men because I would absolutely fight five guys to get the poison, and a few of them would get knocked on their asses before they managed to hold me down tight enough to dispose of the dose.

I didn't arrange any of this.

I was never sworn to secrecy about the poison, the time, or the location, so the fact that some people showed up to stop me is immaterial to our deal.
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Hire someone to knock the drink out of my hand when I am about to drink it. Then get high as fuck so I don't remember shit. Go in with the intention of drinking it, but the guy I hired will knock it out of my hand, preventing me from drinking it.

I will have had the intention of drinking it, but through my own cleverness and planning, I do not drink it in spite of this fact.

God damn am I smart or what?
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Unbridled9 posted...

Tomorrow a group of super-wealthy businessmen get together and present you with an offer. If you intend to drink a cup of poison tomorrow they will give you $10,000,000. The money will be sent to your bank account instantly but won't be cleared for use until the day after tomorrow. The poison itself will not likely kill you but will make you throw up, have painful headaches, and all that nice stuff for about a day. However, there's a catch. This offer exists only so long as you intend to drink the poison, but don't actually drink the poison. If you drink the poison than the money will be taken away from you. You must actually intend to drink the poison to get it in the first place though.

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Unbridled9 posted...

Can you figure out some way to get the money?

Rob the businessmen. Too easy.
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Unbridled9 posted...

JOExHIGASHI posted...

So I have to attempt to drink it but something has to stop me.

I could tell an SO or parent of the deal and they'll stop me while I attempt to drink it.

pay a ninja to add in extra cups of liquid so I don't know which is the poison and the only way to find out is to drink

Get extremely drunk before or somehow impair my motor skills so I spill it or something.

Tell other people about the deal so they drink the poison before I get a chance to

Of course, if you did that, you never intended to drink the poison in the first place, so you wouldn't get the money.

Yeah. But they wouldn't know that. Especially if you used a random person instead of someone you know...
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I can intend to "drink the poison tomorrow" forever.

Whereas the timing of having the money deposited, but taking some time to clear (e.g. the day after tomorrow), is more set in stone.

I'd work off of that angle.
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KJ StErOiDs posted...

I can intend to "drink the poison tomorrow" forever.

Whereas the timing of having the money deposited, but taking some time to clear (e.g. the day after tomorrow), is more set in stone.

I'd work off of that angle.

I think you just have to intend to drink it until you get the money. Then trip and drop the drink...
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Easy, pussy out.
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Drink slowly so I become too I'll to finish
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I just carry the poison with me everywhere I go. I intend to drink it but just never have the time or I forget.
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I've seen this somewhere before...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kavka%27s_toxin_puzzle
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Get myself hypnotized to drink it. But before I do that I pay someone to stop me from drinking it. I have legitimate desire to drink it but someone stops me.

Or I'm naturally a klutz so I spill it while actually trying to drink it

Does this riddle have a real answer?
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JOExHIGASHI posted...

Get myself hypnotized to drink it. But before I do that I pay someone to stop me from drinking it. I have legitimate desire to drink it but someone stops me.

Or I'm naturally a klutz so I spill it while actually trying to drink it

Does this riddle have a real answer?

Sort of. The real test of it is human logical nature. Basically, regardless of the outcome (you earn or don't earn the money) it's deterimental to a person to actually drink the poison. Either you earned the money and poisoned yourself for no reason (since you don't have to actually drink it) or you poisoned yourself for no reason (if you didn't get the money). In the original form it's just you merely earning the money and it doesn't matter if you drink the poison or not, which leads to the situation in which the vast majority of people would lie to get the money since it is naturally detrimental to drink the poison.

However, with this added aspect of you losing the money if you do, the riddle changes. Basically becoming a question of 'can you intend to do something without actually doing it?' Since the only way you earn the money is intending to drink it without actually drinking it, earning the money requires you to find a way in which you can accomplish such a situation. Most people here have shown that they do not actually intend to drink the poison since they would try to lie, put off the poisoning, or have an outside source intervene so that they could claim that they wanted to do so without actually doing so. However there is no way this can actually happen. It's sort of like being asked to take out the garbage and saying you'll do it, only to pass up multiple windows of opportunity to do so while still claiming you are going to take it out. Did you really intend to take out the garbage or were you just lying the whole time?

As a result there is no way to truthfully earn this money. Since if you hired an outside source or whatever to stop this poison you never intended to drink it in the first place (and thusly would forfeit the money) and you drank the poison for nothing. However, if you truthfully intended to drink this poison to earn the money, you would forfeit the money in doing so. As such the only 'solution' is to refuse.
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