Hooligans Solution

This is a logic puzzle with one liar. Immediately in the Unbiased Narrator tells you the scope of the logic puzzle:

• One of the four is a liar
• Catherine is not a liar
• You can steal, find, trade or buy items

On screen you also see the characters (Johnny, Bobby, Sue, Catherine) and items (hat, boots, wooden teeth, gold)

Step by Step Solve:

Like the narrator says, you can click on the hooligans to get them to talk. Their scripts are below:

• Sue

  Ya know what's surprising? I think the person who stole what you're looking for isn't a liar. Just got some wanderin' eyes.

  Catherine's new hat was quite a gem. No way that thing could be found. Nobody tosses somethin' like that. Wooden teeth? That you would definitely find.

• Catherine

  Johnny's a pretty fashionable guy, wouldn't you know it? Hoards stylish things like a magpie hoards diamonds. I'm sure he's got those boots or hat.

  I think Johnny is the General store's number one customer. He even tips - the darn fool. He buys things like we're made of coin!

• Johnny

  Pretty sure the only thing worth trading for in this hunka junk is that gold.

• Little Bobby

  Johnny likes to spend his time trading away while Sue is over in the streets tryin' to find junk in those bins. Weird hobbies.

The easiest way to solve is to start with Catherine, since from the narrator we know she is honest.

Reading her things we learn:

• Johnny should have the boots or hat
• Johnny buys

At that point we should look for contradictions of either of those two things so let's see what we learn from the others and what stands out.

Sue:

• The person who stole isn't the liar
• Catherine has the hat
• The hat was not found
• Wooden teeth were found

Johnny:

• Gold is traded

Bobby:

• Johnny trades
• Sue finds

Taking a look there is a clear contradiction with Bobby saying Johnny trades and Catherine saying that Johnny buys. Since we have to trust Catherine, Bobby is the liar. So to merge everything together and get these facts:

1. Johnny should have the boots or hat
2. Johnny buys
3. The person who stole isn't the liar
4. Catherine has the hat
5. The hat was not found
6. Wooden teeth were found
7. Gold is traded
8. Johnny does not trade (flipped because Bobby is the liar)
9. Sue does not find (flipped because Bobby is the liar)

From this set of facts we can start to draw conclusions:

• From #3, Bobby didn't steal
• From #4 and #1, Johnny must have the boots
• From #2 and above, Johnny bought the boots
• At this point we have Sue, Catherine, Bobby / Hat, Gold, Teeth / Stole, Find, Trade
• From #5 and #7, the hat can't be traded or found so it must be stolen
• From #4 and above, Catherine stole the hat
• At this point we have Sue, Bobby / Gold, Teeth / Find, Trade
• From #9, Sue doesn't find so she must trade
• From #7, Sue must trade gold
• Only one last group remaining is Bobby must find teeth

Final Answer:

How to enter in answer:

Everything is entered through the text box.

When you click on an item you are prompted with who to give the item to. The goal is to keep the stolen item yourself and hand back the rest. So, in any order you should enter:

• Click boots -> give to Johnny
• Click teeth -> give to bobby
• Click gold -> give to sue

At that point you should get prompted to continue with plot. Once plot is over, you get given the answer, WALLFLOWER.

Solution

WALLFLOWER

Partial Answers

none

Hinting

• Make sure they read the unbiased narrator and know the key facts from that (there's a liar, the liar isn't Catherine, they're doing a logic puzzle with stole, find, buy and trade)
• Can they find any immediate contradictions?
• It is a logic puzzle where you are trying to answer WHO, HOW, WHAT where the options are (Johnny, Bobby, Catherine, Sue), (Stole, Find, Trade, Buy), (Hat, Boots, Teeth Gold)
• Make sure they're clicking on the icons/characters

Data