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In an isolated penal colony, 100 perfect logicians are imprisoned.

The
prisoners are perfectly logical in every decision they make, and they will
not do anything unless they are absolutely certain of the outcome. The
prisoners are also aware that the other prisoners are perfect logicians.
However, they cannot communicate with each other. They are each locked
in a cube made of glass preventing them from speaking with one another.
They are also forbidden to communicate with each other, or signing, or
writing messages, else they be executed immediately.

Of the 100 prisoners, 50 have a circle mark on their forehead, and 50


have a triangle on their forehead. However, no individual knows what
shape they have on their forehead. There is no access to reflective surfaces
in the penal colony for the inhabitants to see a reflection of their own faces.
They can each see the 99 other prisoners and their foreheads, but any given
individual does not know if whether they are marked with a circle,
triangle, or perhaps another shape entirely. And remember, they cannot
communicate with each other in any way under penalty of death.

Each night, the warden gives the prisoners a chance to leave the
penal colony they have been imprisoned in. If a prisoner tells the warden
the shape on his or her forehead, they will be immediately released. If they
get it wrong, they will undergo a long, painful, and agonizing death.

Every morning a guru, who the prisoners know to always tell the
truth, speaks, he only makes one statement about what he sees among the
prisoners and it is broadcasted to all the prisoners and they hear it within
their cells. The guru has no mark on his forehead. One day, he stands up
before all 100 prisoners and says:

I see a person with a circle mark on the forehead.

He will continue to say the same until he no longer sees a person


with a circle mark on the forehead.

Who leaves the penal colony? And when do they leave?

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