Silver and Gold
Mystery teasers are little stories where you need to figure out what happened based on the given clues.
Dr. Sorani had just ordered a small drink at the bar in the Las Vegas motel when a lean young stranger with sun-bleached golden hair and tanned cheeks took the stool beside her. After asking for a gin and tonic, the sunburned young man nodded toward the gaming tables.
"Name's Alan Silver," he said genially. "It's sure great to be back in civilization and hear money talking out loud."
The renowned detective introduced herself. "You spent some time in the desert?"
"Got back yesterday," said Silver. "Washed the dust out of my ears, had a real live barber shave off seven months of whiskers and beard and trim this mop of wheat. Then I bought a whole wardrobe on credit. All I had to show was my assay report. Boy, am I ever ready to celebrate."
"You found gold?"
"That's right. Hit pay dirt." Silver stroked his bronzed chin thoughtfully. He lowered his voice confidently.
"Listen," he said. "If I can find a backer, I'll take enough out of those hills to buy ten pleasure palaces just like this one. "Of course," he added apologetically, "I'm not trying to interest you, honey. Still, if you know somebody who'd like to get in on a sure thing, let me know. I'm staying in room 210. Can't give out details here, you understand."
"I understand," said Sorani, "that you'd better improve your story if you want to part some sucker from his money."
What is wrong with Silver's story?
Answer
If Silver had really been in the desert for 7 months, then his cheeks and chin should at least be lighter than the rest of his face, since he had his "whiskers and beard" shaved after he came back to civilization.
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Comments
NDRoxmisox   
Jan 17, 2011
| That was a good one! Took a lttle thinking but I got it!! Nice!  |
thebrain789   
Jan 17, 2011
| Did you borrow this from MindTrap? |
tinypenguin 
Jan 17, 2011
| No, actually I didn't. I bought a book with a whole bunch, and thought I'd share the really nice ones, just with my own characters. |
BrainBoggler 
Jan 18, 2011
| i thought that it was because gold was extremely hard to find and needs to be mined in ore from deepo the earth |
Marple  
Jan 19, 2011
| I liked this - it was very hard but once you know the answer it's obvious! Great teaser!  |
jhosek  
Jan 20, 2011
| This is from one of the 2 minute mysteries books by Donald J Sobol |
NAngelaMiller   
Jan 20, 2011
| if he was that sunburt he would not have gotten a shave either |
Shadows   
Jan 20, 2011
| At least you had the decency to change the names of the characters. (There are mysteries here that still have the original Mindtrap names. Ugh.) However, I would've appreciated it more had you kept the basic idea (not shaving for seven months means your jaw won't be sunburnt) but changed everything else about the story. |
tinypenguin 
Jan 20, 2011
| Lol to tell the truth, I did this at school in a rush. But I'll keep that in mind. Honestly, I've never been to mindtrap, and yes I got this from the book. |
Illusionist 
Feb 18, 2011
| You took that straight from a Two Minute Mysteries book and switched the names around. That's Copywright infringement! |
BOBdaMAN   
Feb 20, 2011
| the cause of the answer was never mentioned. How should we now what his face color was? |
Illusionist 
Feb 23, 2011
| Bobdaman you are incorrect. If you pay special attention to the first couple of words then you would have not asked the above question. This is copied and pasted from the mystery:
Dr. Sorani had just ordered a small drink at the bar in the Las Vegas motel when a lean young stranger with sun-bleached golden hair and tanned cheeks took the stool beside her. When a lean young young stranger with sun-bleached golden hair and TANNED CHEEKS took the stool beside her! You are incorrect Bobdaman. |
jonas   
Mar 13, 2011
| I love this! Very clever  |
xxsoftballxx13x   
Jun 03, 2011
| I love the teaser and you, tiny! |
nickmannawar
Jul 31, 2011
| YAY i got it!!! this is probably my favorite teaser i have seen so far good job dude  |
moner_manush   
Nov 08, 2011
| Took a lot of thinking..thought that story is fake cause gold is mine from deep down the earth... it turned out wrong  |
Vivica   
Jul 10, 2012
| There's gold in the desert? |
JQPublic 
Aug 05, 2012
| That's really a clever one.  |
Quocalimar
Nov 07, 2012
| Nice threw me for a lopp, and lol Illusionist is trolling everyones'. |
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