Hijacker's parachute
If the hijacker had asked for one parachute, the attendant might have deliberately given him a
faulty one. By asking for two parachutes the hijacker gave the impression he was going to take
a hostage and would make the hostage jump. The hijacker was sure the attendant would give him
two good parachutes for a faulty parachute would result in the hostage's death.
As it was, the hijacker had no intention of taking a hostage. All he wanted to do was to be
sure he got a good parachute. Once he had the parachutes he put one on and threw the other
aside.
He was about to jump when SUDDENLY, a thought crossed his mind. What if the attendant had
thought it through logically exactly as he had done? Maybe, the attendant might have given
him two faulty parachutes. The only way now to check whether they were both ok, or not, was
to put one on the attendant and make her jump. If she would not jump then the parachute she
was wearing would be faulty. In fact, she was prepared to jump so the parachutes were ok.
AH! But then the hijacker thought the attendant might possibly be really, really smart. He
needed to do something in case there might be an angle he hadn't thought of. If the attendant
had refused to jump it would have been because he knew she was wearing a faulty parachute but
as she had been ready to jump it showed that she knew she was wearing a good one. That, though,
did not prove the other parachute was ok, so the hijacker called the attendant back, made
her swap parachutes and then jump. Once she had jumped, the hijacker knew both parachutes
were ok, so he put on the remaining one and jumped.
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