Bubblecar said:

Bubblecar said:

dv said:

A teacher, with a class of four pupils, writes the following words on the board.

VOWS
LASH
TADS
RIGS
LORD
FAKE
FORE
WAVE
AXES
BAIT
COVE
SCAM
PALS

He then writes one of these words on a piece of paper, tears it into four pieces with each piece containing one letter, and hands each student a piece, then tells them what he’s done. He adds, “I’m going to call your names in turn, and when your name is called, tell me whether you know what word I wrote.”

Teacher – “Amy?”
Amy – “Yes.”
Teacher – “Bob?”
Bob – “Yes.”
Teacher – “Carol?”
Carol – “No.”
Teacher – “Doug?”
Doug – “Yes.”

Carol, unprompted, says, “Then I can also say Yes.”

What was the word?

FAKE

I’m now thinking it could also be SCAM

The word must have at least one unique letter and at least one letter that only appears in two words. The possible words are:

BAIT, RIGS, FAKE, SCAM.

If she got a T she would know it was BAIT.
If she got an I Doug would get an A or an S and not know the word.
If she got an A Doug would get an I, T, or S and know the word, so she still wouldn’t.
If she got an S Doug would get an R, I, or A. He wouldn’t know the word if it was A or I, so he must have got an R, so the word must be

RIGS.