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"A starved man wanders into the depths of a foreboding wilderness in the dark of the night with a shotgun. The only light is that which shines from the full moon casting shadows on the forest floor. Just as the young man crosses an opening in the foliage he sees a rabbit. The young man hasn't eaten for days. He raises the barrel to shoot at the rabbit but before he does the rabbit speaks...

'If you shoot me you will die. If you do not shoot your family will die.'"


What does the man do?

Those who really wish to know the answer can PM me.

Happy thinking :)

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Personally, I'd take the safety catch off the gun, tie a piece of ivy round the trigger; while keeping the rabbit talking place the gun in a perch aimed at the rabbit. Wander round and then covertly tie the piece of the ivy to the rabbits leg while ensuring the gun was always be pointed at the rabbit via gearing and pully mechanism. Then I would allow the rabbit to go and thus the mechanism would be pulled and the rabbit would shoot itself.

However they're no such things as talking rabbits so I think it was all an hallucination caused by the hunger.

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Personally, I'd take the safety catch off the gun, tie a piece of ivy round the trigger; while keeping the rabbit talking place the gun in a perch aimed at the rabbit. Wander round and then covertly tie the piece of the ivy to the rabbits leg while ensuring the gun was always be pointed at the rabbit via gearing and pully mechanism. Then I would allow the rabbit to go and thus the mechanism would be pulled and the rabbit would shoot itself.

Does that not mean he DID not shoot the rabbit... So what will happen?

However they're no such things as talking rabbits so I think it was all an hallucination caused by the hunger.

To avoid confusion I will say you need to accept the rabbit can talk. Now what is your action?

Nothing, the person gets out the catch-22; as the question which really needs to be asked is how does the rabbit know if the person has a family?

Strangles it and swears off psilocybe.

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Nothing, the person gets out the catch-22;

Are you satisfied with accepting nothing can be done?

He has just been presented with some damn important information. Really he owes it to himself to pay full attention to this information the rabbit has given him... So again I ask what does he DO?

how does the rabbit know if the person has a family?

Every person has a family... Even if they do not see them or are not very close to them. But this is not the point is it? You already know the answer doesn't lie with questioning the rabbit and why it exists.

Strangles it and swears off psilocybe.

Why do you want to hurt the rabbit? What has it done to you? Have you heard the saying:- 'Don't shoot the messenger?'

Keep thinking.

Also... Those that have PM'd me, all I will say is that you have not thought about it enough, Although some answers were good.

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Just to clarify, judging by some of the PM's I got I made a bit of a typo and missed out a word in my original post:

'If you shoot me you will die. If you do not shoot your family will die.'

Which I guess could be read as:

'If you do not shoot your family...will die'

That should in fact be:-

'If you shoot me you will die. If you do not shoot me your family will die.'


...

The answer to this is great btw. It will probably be the greatest satisfaction you will ever get from solving a puzzle. This much I can guarantee.

Why do you want to hurt the rabbit? What has it done to you? Have you heard the saying:- 'Don't shoot the messenger?'

"Obviously this thing is the embodiment of pure evil, it has to be dealt with. For this rabbit's soul is not here."

*cue dramatic music, dark filtering with a camp fire lighting scene, movie climaxes*

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Obviously this thing is the embodiment of pure evil, it has to be dealt with. For this rabbit's soul is not here.

Is a Doctor who turns around to you and says you have a life threatening illness and will die within the next month an embodiment of pure evil? No of course he is not. Is the policeman who knocks on your door and tells you your family has died in a car crash an embodiment of pure evil? No he is not.

Ask yourself why you REALLY want to hurt the rabbit... Why are you compelled to do this at a gut instinct? WHY, WHY, WHY?

Sure the rabbit sits there with a smug grin on its face because it has just avoided immediate death, or is the rabbit's cerebral dialogue just a distraction?

What do you DO? Shoot the rabbit, or do not shoot the rabbit?

No hints? hehe. I'm going to say... he shoots himself.

The man is dillusional -- he's looking at a reflection of himself in a pond and thinks he sees a rabbit out of Allice in Wonderland.

What does he do? He shoots at the rabbit, but the bullet reflects off the water and hits him in the forehead, killing him instantly.

Is a Doctor who turns around to you and says you have a life threatening illness and will die within the next month an embodiment of pure evil? No of course he is not. Is the policeman who knocks on your door and tells you your family has died in a car crash an embodiment of pure evil? No he is not.

Ask yourself why you REALLY want to hurt the rabbit... Why are you compelled to do this at a gut instinct? WHY, WHY, WHY?

Sure the rabbit sits there with a smug grin on its face because it has just avoided immediate death, or is the rabbit's cerebral dialogue just a distraction?

What do you DO? Shoot the rabbit, or do not shoot the rabbit?

And by which mystical powers do rabbits talk?

When a doctor or leo gives you a report, shooting them doesn't magically spare their family's life, like in your puzzle. This rabbit somehow has the power to dictate his control over their lives simply by being alive, he's waving a threat of lesser-evil over the man - not a message of illness.

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No hints? hehe. I'm going to say... he shoots himself.

Hints. OK, the first one is K.I.S.S. As others come closer to a solution I will allow more hints. You say he should shoot himself. However, the EXACT same outcome would follow if he shot the rabbit (according to the rabbit.)

So why shoot yourself over shooting the rabbit? Why do you FEEL more satisfaction of not letting the rabbit win? Why? What happens if the rabbit was bullsh*ting him all along? You're now a dead man and the rabbit has just run off... Keep thinking.


The man is dillusional -- he's looking at a reflection of himself in a pond and thinks he sees a rabbit out of Allice in Wonderland.

What does he do? He shoots at the rabbit, but the bullet reflects off the water and hits him in the forehead, killing him instantly.

Too complicated... too MUCH thinking. Ancient Dragon, the PM's you have sent me all seem to be trying to rationalise and explain the situation away.

A Doctor tells you your wife is going to die. Do you simply explain the situation away as him being delusional and forgot the whole thing ever happened?

When you accept the situation as it IS and consider a course of action you will have reached the next stage. What does he DO?

And by which mystical powers do rabbits talk?

Does it matter?

When a doctor or leo gives you a report, shooting them doesn't magically spare their family's life, like in your puzzle.

Yes you are right.

This rabbit somehow has the power to dictate his control over their lives simply by being alive, he's waving a threat of lesser-evil over the man - not a message of illness.

Waving a threat of LESSER evil by being alive? So your family being alive is a lesser evil than you being dead? Do you not value your own life? Would you not like to raise a family one day?

Again why is the rabbit a threat? I haven't mentioned ANYWHERE that the rabbit instigates any of the two possible outcomes.

Look at the situation.

You're standing there with a rabbit at point blank range. With a shotgun in your hands. The rabbit is standing there small and defenceless, he has said something, something you can't even be sure of. Who is the REAL threat here? You or the rabbit?

MosaicFuneral what do you DO? Are you going to chicken out on me?

Well, you came out to shoot a rabbit, so shoot. Of course, there's probably no bullet in the gun, because by the sound of this all, this man has no business hunting and should go reevaluate his life.

well personally I would just shoot the rabbit on the off chance if I let the bunny go, my family will die. And since I'm starving and probably delusional, I'll be dead anyway if I don't kill it.

what's taters eh?

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well personally I would just shoot the rabbit on the off chance if I let the bunny go, my family will die. And since I'm starving and probably delusional, I'll be dead anyway if I don't kill it.

what's taters eh?

What happens if the rabbit switched it round and said, 'If you shoot me your family will die. If you don't shoot me you will die.'

Would you change your course of action?

Are you satisfied that the answer you have given is correct?

my decision revolves around my family and their well being.

Is there a "Right" answer to this question or is this just a matter of moral integrity?

Ask the rabbit whether he meant
"If you shoot me you will die. If you do not shoot me your family will die."

Well, for this puzzle, I neither want myself face death nor my family too, but I am in hunger and hasn't eaten for days, so the best way is to catch the rabbit,cut off it's ear and tail,then bake them with fire,hahahaaaaa......
But I wish the rabbit not die with my bad technique.

I would just shoot the damed thing and hope that he's wrong. If its wrong then skin it, gut it, cook it, and eat it. Yummy :)

The thing that gets me about this 'scenario' is that there are no timeframes set for either statement.

"If you shoot me you will die" Well, if you don't shoot it you will still die, some day.

"If you don't shoot me your family will die" Again, eventually, everyone dies.

Personally, I'd take the chance and shoot the damn rabbit. I'm hungry, he's food, and the latter threat involves potentially killing my loved ones where the former threat involves my own death. I have no place to make a decision on behalf of others for their lives so... *shrug*

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my decision revolves around my family and their well being.

Is there a "Right" answer to this question or is this just a matter of moral integrity?

Yes this puzzle has an answer to it. I wouldn't have asked if it didn't.

Ask the rabbit whether he meant
"If you shoot me you will die. If you do not shoot me your family will die."

Ahhhhhh. Well done, ithelp you are the first person that has showed the rabbit any respect.
You have asked it a question. Everyone else has assumed do this or do that. I must do one or
the other, no one yet has stopped to consider maybe there isn't enough information here to
make a decision. No one has stopped to ask the rabbit a question. However, I made a mistake
in the my first post. I missed out the word me by accident. As I have said previously.

...Keep thinking though.

Well, for this puzzle, I neither want myself face death nor my family too, but I am in hunger and hasn't eaten for days, so the best way is to catch the rabbit,cut off it's ear and tail,then bake them with fire,hahahaaaaa......
But I wish the rabbit not die with my bad technique.

This is puzzle is not a trick with words. You can transpose the word shoot with kill if it makes arriving at the answer any clearer. In fact I probably should have written kill instead of shoot.

The thing that gets me about this 'scenario' is that there are no timeframes set for either statement.

"If you shoot me you will die" Well, if you don't shoot it you will still die, some day.

"If you don't shoot me your family will die" Again, eventually, everyone dies.

Personally, I'd take the chance and shoot the damn rabbit. I'm hungry, he's food, and the latter threat involves potentially killing my loved ones where the former threat involves my own death. I have no place to make a decision on behalf of others for their lives so... *shrug*

^^ This is excellent. You're on to something here. Timeframes. Are not both the rabbits options inevitable in time? Why try to prevent the inevitable.
You are almost close to hitting home the answer but you chickened out. Why is sparing the life of your family better than losing your own life?
What happens if you have a family of your own? Are not both options EQUALLY devastating? YES they are. So what do you DO?

I think by the time we get the solution to this the man might have died from hunger already. So why bother solving it. Shoot the rabbit and live with it I say.

Agree. He'll die either from hunger or old age.

Besides, the family dying is likely a result of him going off the deep end due to starvation induced madness when he doesn't shoot the rabbit and eat it. And him dying is likely the result of the fact that the rabbit is running around with some unfortunate disease that's given it the ability to talk while being deathly toxic to eat...

((Now I'm just being silly so disregard this part))

I suggested that too but then I was accused of over thinking the problem.

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Guys, guys guys... What did I say? Keep it simple.

The man is a man, the rabbit is a rabbit, his family is his family.

Take what the rabbit says literally. There is NO spin of words. OK... Good. Now drop your EGO.

Next hint:
1) Stop thinking about this from a logical point of view.
2) Stop thinking about this from a moral point of view
3) Stop thinking about this from any point of view.
4) Stop thinking.
5) Realise.

Where do you end up?


Those that have decided to give up or believe they have found the answer are still here asking more questions. Are you satisfied with your answer no you are not. And this is OK.

Empty your cup ... free your mind. Come on, you've come this far. Are you going to chicken out on me and prove me right??????

Keep going. Some of you are really really close.

Well...

"Rabbit, how and when are these deaths to occur in either case? You make a vague statement implying that I will kill myself by killing you or kill my family by not killing you, however you do not state how either party dies or when. Is it not possible that I can kill you, eat you, sew your hide into a nice hat and live to a ripe old age but still 'die' eventually based on what you say? Is it not further possible that I may spare you, find my way home, eat a nice big meal with my family and watch them grow old around me, eventually dying of natural causes based on what you say? Please define the terms of your statement more clearly."

:twisted:

EDIT: And when he's busy paying attention to me, the bear eats him... I shoot the bear and end up with a bigger meal, more hide to make clothes with, and food to bring home to my family as well...

commented: LOL +7

I think the rabbit is totally confused by now. I agree, rather wait for the bear. Shoot him quick enough and you get the rabbit and the bear... Of point again hahaha.

I almost had to go back to the first post again just to see what all the fuzz was about, oh then realized I have to realize and not think, soooo here I go...

On a more serious note, maybe what the rabbit means is - shoot me with a shotgun and there will be nothing left to eat. Should you however eat the little bit left, there will be nothing left over for your family, so they die from hunger. Your choice hunter, you eat and stay alive while your family starve OR they live and you die from starvation????????

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