Short Story: The Unexpected Hanging Paradox: A Logical Explanation of Judge's Trick

So, have you guys heard about the unexpected hanging paradox. If not, then below is an explanation of what is unexpected handing paradox: --

According to the unexpected hanging paradox, one day a person was accused of accomplishing a heinous crime and the judge declared to hang him till death. However, since he was one of his swear enemies, so the judge made a special arrangement for him. The judge told the prisoner that he will be hanged on the noon of the any coming weekday, but since it will be a surprise hanging; the prisoner will be informed about the hanging only when someone knocks the door at noon of any weekday. The judge then asked the prisoner if he has anything to say or doubt about the judgement.

The prisoner was very clever, so he does a logical analysis of the judge’s judgement and draws the following conclusion: --

“Your honor, you cannot hang me on Friday because Friday is the last day of the coming weekday; and if I would not be hanged till Thursday, then it would not remain a surprise anymore for me. So, Friday is eliminated from the days of my hanging."

"Similarly, I cannot be hanged on Thursday, because if I am not hanged till Wednesday, then Thursday will not remain a surprise hanging day for me anymore since Friday is already eliminated.”

Following the same logic; the prisoner eliminated all the weekdays from Monday to Friday and happily said that he could not be hanged at all. However, the judge still hanged him on Wednesday.

So, have you ever asked yourself why the judge decided to hang him on Wednesday instead of prisoner’s logic? How the judge would have tricked the prisoner to give him this surprise? Well! I have written a short story to tell the same thing in a very exciting way. So below is my story: --

It was a judgement day for the Eric’s case, and the reason why Eric was worried is because that the judge who was going to give the judgement was his greatest enemy. Eric had never committed any crime, but this time it happened somehow that he had killed a thief in a rage of self-defense. However, it was later turned out that the thief was not a thief, but one of Eric’s relatives.

Eric was a famous scientist at the well reputed firm and would make algorithms for the AI company of the USA. It was not a long time ago, when Eric started having a feeling that something unusual had started happening to his mind. He started having some hallucinations and started to feel depressed. He didn’t know what was happening to his mind, and then one day this serious accident occurred; and Eric killed one of his own relatives; thinking he was some kind of burglar or a thief.

The judge for the Eric’s case was also one of his swear enemies; because he divorced his daughter without any serious reason.
So, the judge started his proceedings and said: --

“Mr. Eric, after looking at all the witnesses and evidence; it has been proved that you have cold bloodedly murdered one of your relative’s in a fit of rage, without any common reasons. Your statement that you’ve done this murder in self-defense is denied since the person who died was actually one of your close relatives. Murdering a close relative in an act of self-defense is implausible and hence you are guilty of a serious and cold-blooded murder. So, I refuse to punish you; ordering the court to hang you till death.”

Eric was quite surprised at this decision and he screamed with utter ignominy and said: --

“But your honor, I didn’t kill him with any motivation. I thought he was a burglar who entered my home in a midnight and I killed him for self-defense.”

The judge didn’t listen to his plea and replied: --

Mr. Eric! Please calm down! This is court, not your home.

The judge scratched his mind for a while, and then replied: --

“Since the judgement is already in place, so I cannot change it. However, I have an authority to give you a chance to prove me wrong in my statement to save yourself by using your logical explanation power. So, I will hang you on any of the day of the coming weekday noon. Since this will be a surprise hanging, so you would only come to know about the hanging only when someone will knock on your door in the noon. Now, if you can save yourself in those weekdays from hanging by using your logic, then you will be exempted from hanging and released.”

Eric thought deeply about the judge’s statement and started making some calculations in his mind. Then suddenly, Eric jumped in excitement and replied: --

“My honor, I can prove through my logic that you cannot hang with on any day of the weekday. If you provide me permission, then may I give my statement?”

The judge was amazed at his response and replied – “Yes! You may proceed.”
Eric smiled and replied: --

“Your honor, you cannot hang me on Friday because since Friday will be the last day of the weekday, so I will already have come to know that I will be hanged on Friday and that will not be a surprise anymore. So, Friday is eliminated from the day of my hanging. Moreover, you can also not hang me on Thursday because since Friday has already been eliminated from the list, so Thursday will not remain a surprise day for me anymore. Following the same logic, Monday, Tuesday, and finally Wednesday are eliminated from the list. So, you cannot hang me on any day of the weekday.”

The judge was really surprised with the logical explanation of Eric, but as Eric was also his enemy, so the judge was not willing to leave him anyhow. So, the judge played a trick with Eric by putting him in a dark dungeon and not letting him know about the day and night. Eric had already been living in a custody since few days and the judge was damn sure that he didn’t know what the day it was. When the hearing of the judgement was made, then it was Saturday and Eric had been sent to the dark dungeon at night. In the next morning of Sunday, the judge sent him a newspaper of Saturday with tea and breakfast.

Eric was really happy and thought that after the end of the weekday, he would be released to live his life. However, he was oblivious about what was going in the mind of the judge. Eric read the Saturday newspaper, while thinking that it’s Saturday; a day of the weekend and so the judge would not hang him on weekend. The next day, i.e. on Monday, the judge again sent him the newspaper of Sunday with the tea. Eric was again happy thinking that since today is Sunday, so the judge would not hang him.

Again, on Tuesday; the judge did the same thing and sent him a Monday newspaper. Now, Eric thought that according to his logic, the judge cannot hang him and the same thing happened; he was not hanged by Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the judge played a trick and sent him the right newspaper of Wednesday. Then, a doubt came in Eric’s mind and he thought: --

“What the hell is happening here? Today is Wednesday, then where the hell Tuesday has gone. Yesterday I read a paper of Monday and where the hell is Tuesday’s newspaper?”

Eric started perspiring and his heart started to palpitate. He started to become nervous. Then, suddenly someone knocked at the door and said: --

“Stand up and become ready Eric, it’s your hanging day.”

Eric was shocked and he started shouting, but the policemen didn’t listen to him and dragged him to the place of hanging. He was not happy at the judge’s decision and when asked about his last wish, then Eric asked to meet the judge. The judge appeared after a while and asked Eric: --

“Tell me Eric? What is your wish.”

Eric replied in a rage – “Your honor! According to my logic, I cannot be hanged on weekdays, and I don’t know whether it is Tuesday or Wednesday today, but you cannot hang me.”

The judge smirked and asked – “Eric! Let me give a plausible explanation to your hanging. Do you know what day today is?”
Eric replied – “Not sure! It might be a Tuesday or Wednesday.”

The judge replied – “Today is Wednesday Eric and since you are not sure whether today is Wednesday, so you can be hanged between the noon of Tuesday to the noon of Wednesday; because in that case since you really not sure about what the day today is, so you can be hanged and it will still be a surprise for you. And your logic fails here, since you’ve already lost the Tuesday, and you are not sure about today.”

So, Eric didn’t ask any more questions about judge’s judgement and he was hanged till death on Wednesday noon.