The Telepath

(It is a fictional story, just to have fun with philosophical arguments)

It was Monday. I was in the school. I was thinking about the novel I had recently read, The Sign of Four, it is a Sherlock Holmes novel. I enjoyed reading it and I was thinking about the methods by which Sherlock Holmes makes his deduction. All my friends claimed that they had not read the novel. I was casually talking with my friends when one of them, referred to me as Jonathan Small. (Spoilers!!!!!) He was actually the culprit in the story and I was mostly thinking about this character. I got a whim that the guy could read my mind. I am a bit childish so in my head, I was telling him  "I know I can read your mind". I wanted to see his reaction and what he would have done in response to it. He did not give much reaction. So I told him and everyone about it. He claimed that he could read my mind. We joked about it obviously, but then I said to him that he can't since moment ago he did not response to his thoughts addressed to him. He said, "|Well, I can read mind but I don't want people to know that I can. I told you people but obviously, you don't believe me. You think that it was a coincidence and I too have read that novel. I only tell people the things which have a room for doubt or an excuse by which it can proved that I was lying. If I would have responded to your thoughts, then it would be confirmatory to you about my powers. But I want to maintain a state where it is possible to justify and nullify my powers."

We were all laughing by this. I thought that it was an interesting thing that he said. I said, "Well, there must be way to prove it, of course." "How?", said he. "Well, what if I one day surprisingly hit you from back. By informing you only in my thoughts." 

"I would take the hit. I consider concealing my secret the topmost priority."

Another friend of mine said that, "it obviously depends upon the degree to which you want to conceal it. Are you willing to give up your life for that? It also depends on the nature of powers that you have and to what degree it is there. I have an experiment on mind. What if I hire a person to hire another person to genuinely attempt to kill you by giving a poisoned apple, which that person believes to be poisoned, but I made made sure it is not poisoned. So if you avoid the food, then you have powers and if you take it then you don't."

"Smart", said the friend who claims to read minds.
 The teacher came to the room and we went taking our seats when my other friend who proposed the fantastic experiment said that , "if there exists powers like reading minds, why can't the powers extend to controlling other minds, Major Sholto."

I freaked out.

I was convinced that someone around does have some powers.

I spent the entire night thinking who was the telepath. Or did both of them read the novel and jointly trying to just mess with my MIND.