Brain Teasers
Watch Theft
Mystery
Mystery teasers are little stories where you need to figure out what happened based on the given clues.Mystery
Larry is in police custody for a suspected robbery. There is some evidence that he stole a watch out of a locker where he worked.
"What happened at the factory, Larry?" Chief Brossard asked.
"I came to work at 5:00 AM as I always do. We worked until noon when we ate lunch, which lasted an hour. I-"
"What do you do at work?"
"I cut metal slabs."
"How long does that take?"
"About one minute per strip. They're for motor vehicles. Anyway, after lunch, I had exactly 179 strips to make. Three hours later, I came into the locker room to change and go home when I saw a locker broken into. Some people came in and accused me of stealing someone's watch. I didn't have time to steal it because when I got off at 3:59 other people would have seen me as an entire shift gets off, and a minute to get there and break into the locker isn't enough time."
With fingerprint evidence, Chief Brossard's suspicion was true that Larry stole the watch. How did he do it?
"What happened at the factory, Larry?" Chief Brossard asked.
"I came to work at 5:00 AM as I always do. We worked until noon when we ate lunch, which lasted an hour. I-"
"What do you do at work?"
"I cut metal slabs."
"How long does that take?"
"About one minute per strip. They're for motor vehicles. Anyway, after lunch, I had exactly 179 strips to make. Three hours later, I came into the locker room to change and go home when I saw a locker broken into. Some people came in and accused me of stealing someone's watch. I didn't have time to steal it because when I got off at 3:59 other people would have seen me as an entire shift gets off, and a minute to get there and break into the locker isn't enough time."
With fingerprint evidence, Chief Brossard's suspicion was true that Larry stole the watch. How did he do it?
Answer
Each cut only took one minute. When he came to the 178th cut, that would automatically make 179 pieces without another cut. He then had two minutes to run to the locker room and break into the locker, stealing the watch.Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
Hmmm..... he must have eaten his lunch in one big gulp then.
This Is simple he had enough time to get in. I may suck at the other teasers, but im good at mystery
The puzzle says one minute per strip, not one minute per cut. The wording also suggests that he may be cutting strips off of a much larger piece, which would mean that 179 strips would require 179 cuts since the leftover would be the wrong size. The puzzle needs to be better written.
I Agree. i figured it out by other means than that
Nice teaser Tinman! I enjoyed this.
good one
I agree with lelrod about the wording.
Good one, I enjoyed it
I liked this teaser, I got it wrong but I still liked it.
Haha.... you finally caught the lunch reference tinman??
Yes, I got the lunch reference! I guess last time I totally missed it. Thanks fer pointin it out though!
Yes, I got the lunch reference! I guess last time I totally missed it. Thanks fer pointin it out though!
Lunch or no lunch, 178 or 179 cuts, it was still a bit confusing with so many missing details. Where was the locker room? How long to get there and back? If he could so easily seen at 3:59 then why not earlier when allegedly 'took' the watch???
Old China Hand,
I don't know if this answers your question or not, but originally the teaser stated that he worked until noon, and then stopped for lunch (he didn't mention how long lunch was). He said he had 180 cuts left to do after lunch which would take him aprox 3 hours. Then he said he left work at 3, BUT there's only 3 hours between 12noon and 3pm, so he couldn't have eaten lunch at ALL!!
Metallicman later changed the teaser to its present form, after I pointed it out to him.
I don't know if this answers your question or not, but originally the teaser stated that he worked until noon, and then stopped for lunch (he didn't mention how long lunch was). He said he had 180 cuts left to do after lunch which would take him aprox 3 hours. Then he said he left work at 3, BUT there's only 3 hours between 12noon and 3pm, so he couldn't have eaten lunch at ALL!!
Metallicman later changed the teaser to its present form, after I pointed it out to him.
I liked this one - the answer was gettable yet difficult at the same time as I had to read it through 3 times before I got it! Good Job
I got it
wow this was good i liked it
it says lunch was an hour
It didn't originally, Donu. He corrected it.
it was a hard one i didnt get it but the wording was a little hard to under stand over all though it was a really good teaser!
"I came to work at 50 AM as I always do"...so he instantly starts working the second he walks through the door? It should be worded out as "I started work at 5.00AM. The riddle wasn't too bad, could've been better.
There is another answer to this! before they know he'd stolen it, when he broke in to the locker he would have known how long it took, so he would have known that one minute wasn't enough time.
His work started at noon, correct?
And he worked for 179 minutes?
That would be 2:59 !!!
120+59=179
Or am i missing something
And he worked for 179 minutes?
That would be 2:59 !!!
120+59=179
Or am i missing something
you're missing lunch!
I have a friend named Larry. Lol.
sorry but this one is really old.
^^^ someone named larry stalks me.
I thought it was a bigger slab then 179 cuts.
How did he break in the locker?
WHAT?!!?
Aug 19, 2006
you said after cut 178 he had 2 minutes but your teaser didnt say 1 minute per cut it said 1 minute per strip so he actually didnt have 2 minutes
great stuff!!!!
nice teaser! I actually got this one! =)).
Im confused... but the teasers sounds fine...
sorry, that went right over my head....
Oy Vey Iz Mer
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I thought the answer was that he skipped his lunch. 2 minutes to steal a watch? Very unrealistic. If 1 minute is not enough, why would 2 minutes be enough? Doesn't seem like much of a difference.
This represents a typical inability to manipulate numbers. He said "about a minute" for the amount of time it takes to cut a strip. So this could be anywhere from 50 seconds to 70 seconds and still be truthful. Multiplying by 179 and expecting to be accurate to 60 seconds is ridiculous.
And you only have his word on how long it takes. Maybe if he pushes himself, he can average 30 seconds per strip, but he normally averages a minute because he is in the union.
And you only have his word on how long it takes. Maybe if he pushes himself, he can average 30 seconds per strip, but he normally averages a minute because he is in the union.
I think no matter what the teaser could have been better-written with better clues. I didn't get it.
Wait a minute - Larry starts work at 5 am and works until noon? He works 7 straight hours without breaks? Larry works 10 hours a day, 11 hours including lunch, and we're quibbling about 3 minutes? What?
I really think "one minute per strip" should be changed to cut. I got the answer and didn't think of this but after reading the comments, I agree with lelrod. Great teaser though!
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