Many years ago, a Law teacher came across a student who was willing to learn but was unable to pay the fees. The student struck a deal saying, "I will pay your fee the day I win my first case in the court".

Teacher agreed and proceeded with the law course. When the course was finished and teacher started pestering the student to pay up the fee, the student reminded him of the deal and pushed days. Fed up with this, the teacher decided to sue the student in the court of law and both of them decided to argue for themselves.

The teacher put forward his argument saying: "If I win this case, as per the court of law, the student has to pay me as the case is about his non-payment of dues. And if I lose the case, student will still pay me because he would have won his first case. So either way I will have to get the money".

Equally brilliant, the student argued back saying: "If I win the case, as per the court of law, I don't have to pay anything to the teacher as the case is about my non-payment of dues. And if I lose the case, I don't have to pay him because I haven't won my first case yet. So either way, I am not going to pay the teacher anything". This is one of the greatest paradoxe ' s ever recorded in history.

Replies

the student is wrong

the student is wrong here.
the case is whether or not the prof. deserves money BEFORE the case. if the case is ruled in favor of the professor, the professor is legally entitled to deserve the money before the case even started, and gets the money.
if the ruling is in favor of the student, then although the prof. doesnt win the case, he does get the money from the actual contract instead of the case.

there are really two seperate occurances of the student owing money, the agreement and the court case.

Greatest Paradox - not

This is not a paradox - it is simply confused logic. The outcome will depend on the court's ruling on a) the validity of the debt and b) the validity of the original contract. If the outcome of these rulings are known then the 'paradox' dissapears.

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