King Octopus Servants Puzzle: Solving a Classic Truth-Teller and Liar Problem

A Classic Truth Teller Liar Puzzle to Kick Off Your Weekend

Here’s a fun challenge for everyone:

King Octopus has servants with six, seven, or eight legs. Servants with seven legs always lie, while servants with six or eight legs always tell the truth.

One day, four servants met.

• The Blue servant said: “Together we have 28 legs.”
• The Green servant said: “Together we have 27 legs.”
• The Yellow servant said: “Together we have 26 legs.”
• The Red servant said: “Together we have 25 legs.”

Which servant is telling the truth?

Solution to the Truth Teller Liar Puzzle

The answer is the Green servant (6 legs).

Breaking Down the Daily Math Challenge Step by Step

From the puzzle’s conditions, we know that each servant made a different claim — and since all four numbers are different, at most one of them can be correct. That means three of the four servants are lying, and therefore all three liars have 7 legs.

Let’s count the total number of legs belonging to the three liars:

3 × 7 = 21 legs

Finding the Truth Teller

The honest servant can have either 6 or 8 legs. So the two possible totals are:

• 21 + 6 = 27
• 21 + 8 = 29

Now we check which servant stated one of these numbers. The Green servant claimed the total is 27 — which matches exactly. That means Green is the one telling the truth, and has 6 legs.