Riddle

@Matty[spoiler]if one always lies and one always tells the truth, then the one who can't tell you where you are is the one that cannot be called John[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Well if not for the 3 words, I'd ask the right robot "what would the other robot tell me his name is?" Then you give it to who ever is claimed to be Tom. I guess the shortest I could go is 4 words. While pointing at the left robot, ask the right robot "He claims to be?" 4 cases: 1. Left lies, Right tells truth, left is John 2. Lift lies, right tells truth, right is John 3. Right lies, left tells truth, left is John 4. Right lies, left tells truth, right is John In case 1, Left should get the package. Right tells truth, so he would reply "Tom" because the right one lies and would say his name is Tom. You give the package to "Tom" who is really John. In case 2, right should get the package, Right tells truth, so he would reply "John" because the left lies, so left would call himself "john" when he is really Tom. So you give the package to the guy on the right as he is by default "Tom" again, he's really John. In case 3, left should get the package. Right lies, so he would reply "tom" because the left robot is John and would tell you he is John but the right robot would lie and say Tom, so give it to the left robot "Tom" who is really John. In case 4, right should get the package. The left robot would lie and claim to be John since he is actually Tom. The right robot would tell the truth and say the left robot would claim to be John. Give the package to the right Robot since he by default would be "Tom"... but really John.[/spoiler] Someone would have to figure out how to get that down to 3 words.

[spoiler=@CBT]Yes, either go for double lie/double truth (same robot twice) or go for a lie and a truth, and take the other one (both robots once). But not sure on how to do that with three words. Nice catch in four words ;) [/spoiler]

This reminds me of a scene in labyrinth....

[spoiler]I don't know if this may help, but maybe you can think a question with 3 words, but with them repeating... Probably this is not correct in English, but in Spanish would work :P : He claims he is? (then apply cbt's cases)[/spoiler]

@maafi [spoiler]if you ask him where are you. so if he responds right here, then youve determined that he tells the truth. but we never knew which robot tells the truth and which lies. so we would still not have any knowledge of the identity of the robot you spoke to. ( you only get one question. and we dont know if john lies or tells the truth.[/spoiler]

@psymonstark There's a solution with only 3 English words. A complete sentence with a subject and a predicate. ;)

Also Matty and CBT with good work on the[i] >3 word[/i] solution! This is similar to the well known riddle, but harder!

"Where are we?" The truth robot will say where we are The lie robot will say some other place Regardless of which one you ask, you know who to give it to. However, it wasn't determined if your robot agent is the truth teller or the lier, but it would be assumed that no legitimate organisation would use a robot that lies unless it was meant to deceive. You could also ask "Who am I?" for the same result.

Sorry, tramadol, we still don't know which one is the truth sayer. To reason that he probably is the truth sayer, bec our organization wouldn't have anything less, is a nice try, but it could've been a glitch in his programming. or a robot built for deception, as you said. There [i]is[/i] a clear cut answer.

@BETA [spoiler]I must be missing something! We know: 1. That one robot ALWAYS lies and one ALWAYS tells the truth 2. That the robot we want is the truth-teller (The other robot is Tom but lies and calls himself John) So we need one 3 worded question that is definitive. So, 'where are you/we' works. The real John answers truthfully and Tom will tell us somewhere else. [/spoiler]

2. The robot we want is called John, that's all we know about it. We do not know whether or not John always lies or John always speaks the truth.

Oh boy!! I made a big error in writing the riddle! Maafi is correct! I wrote that they both claim to be John. This is incorrect. They both stick their hands out, without any words. I am really sorry. :$ As written, if Tom claims to be John, he is the liar. So, credit to Maafi for solving the riddle I posted! But here's the change, NO WORDS SPOKEN.

Is the answer my 4 word answer just more concise? Or is it something completely different?

completely different. (at least the answer I know)