Right, so if we suppose that the "punch-line" statement, describing the prisoner's state of mind, is true: > the executioner knocks on the prisoner's door at n

Right, so if we suppose that the "punch-line" statement, describing the prisoner's state of mind, is true: > the executioner knocks on the prisoner's door at noon on Wednesday — which, despite all the above, was an utter surprise to him. Then it follows there are two false epistemological claims in the text. First by the judge: >He will not know the day of the hanging until the executioner knocks on his cell door at noon that day. This is false, as you correctly reason, since a knock on Friday would come as no surprise (at the time it occurred). The second false claim, this time by the narrator, reinforces the first: >Everything the judge said came true. Not every claim the judge asserted was tested by the recounted physical events: There was no knock on Friday.