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During a trial in a Hogwarts court, Ron claimed that the Flying Ford Anglia car was stolen by Hermione.

Then Hermione and Harry gave testimonies which, for some reason, were not recorded. Later on in the trial it was found that the car was stolen by one of these three defendants, and moreover, only the guilty one gave true testimony.

Who stole the car?

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    $\begingroup$ I'm flagging this for migration to Science Fiction & Fantasy ;-) $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 23:33
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    $\begingroup$ @Randal'Thor No, literature :P $\endgroup$
    – Quintec
    Commented Jan 16, 2018 at 2:15
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    $\begingroup$ @thecoder16 No, History. $\endgroup$
    – corsiKa
    Commented Jan 16, 2018 at 4:43
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    $\begingroup$ Wait, obviously law.se $\endgroup$
    – Quintec
    Commented Jan 16, 2018 at 12:49

4 Answers 4

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Only the guilty one gave true testimony.

There are 2 options for being guilty and giving true testimony:

  1. Declaring yourself guilty

  2. Declaring someone else not guilty

Ron declares someone guilty different than himself (1), which means

he's lying.

If Ron lies, he can't be the guilty one, so he's innocent.

If Ron lies, what he says is false. So Hermione is innocent as well.

If Ron and Hermione are innocent, Harry is guilty (and he'll admit it).

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If Ron was guilty, he would be telling the truth, which cannot be the case since he claimed Hermione stole the car. So Ron is lying, which results Hermione did not stole the car.

This results

Harry stole the car whatever Hermione’s testimony is.

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    $\begingroup$ I think Hermione can't give any random testimony like "Harry stole the car". Am I wrong? $\endgroup$
    – Simbs
    Commented Jan 16, 2018 at 11:26
  • $\begingroup$ @Simba I said "whatever Hermione's testimony is", I did not tell any random testimony. It means we dont need that testimony to get the result. $\endgroup$
    – Oray
    Commented Jan 16, 2018 at 17:05
  • $\begingroup$ This is true, but there's a plot hole. Only harry could have stolen the car, but it means Hermione's testimony also had to be false, or more likely mistaken. She couldn't simply have said "I did not!" but something like "You probably stole it yourself, Ron!" $\endgroup$
    – Rache
    Commented Jan 16, 2018 at 17:39
  • $\begingroup$ Actually, she could have said either - "I'm guilty" - "You're guilty, Ron" - "Harry is innocent". So, "whatever Hermione's testimony is", out of these three-like. $\endgroup$
    – bvidalar
    Commented Jan 17, 2018 at 10:33
  • $\begingroup$ @BorjaVidalArqué if he said something like that, the given information would be wrong. $\endgroup$
    – Oray
    Commented Jan 17, 2018 at 12:23
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Given:

- Only the guilty gave the true testimony
- Ron says Hermione is guilty
- Harry and Hermione also gave their testimonies

Now:

Since Ron testified that Hermione is guilty, he is definitely lying, since he isn't guilty (as only the guilty party testified truthfully). Since Ron says Hermione stole it, considering the fact that he is lying (again, because only the guilty party spoke the truth) Hermione isn't the thief either. So the thief has to be Harry, by my logic.

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We can say that:

Ron is guilty.

Because:

The question does not say the guilty one gave entirely true testimony. Ron is the only one we can confirm gave true testimony: Ron claimed that the Flying Ford Anglia car was stolen

Therefore:

We can infer that Ron was guilty, regardless of the other details.

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    $\begingroup$ a quality answer should not rely on a cheap play on word like that $\endgroup$
    – user3453281
    Commented Jan 17, 2018 at 1:49

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