Brain Teasers
A Leather Purse!
Situation
Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.Situation
A beggar found a leather purse that someone had dropped in the marketplace. Opening it, he discovered that it contained 100 pieces of gold. Then he heard a merchant shout, "A reward! A reward to the one who finds my leather purse!"
Being an honest man, the beggar came forward and handed the purse to the merchant saying, "Here is your purse. May I have the reward now?"
"Reward?" scoffed the merchant, greedily counting his gold. "Why the purse I dropped had 200 pieces of gold in it. You've already stolen more than the reward! Go away or I'll tell the police."
"I'm an honest man," said the beggar defiantly. "Let us take this matter to the court."
In court, the judge patiently listened to both sides of the story of a leather bag lost and a leather bag found. He counted the coins; 100 gold coins in total. Then said, "If all was said is true then it's clear that no reward is necessary."
How did the judge rule on this case?
Being an honest man, the beggar came forward and handed the purse to the merchant saying, "Here is your purse. May I have the reward now?"
"Reward?" scoffed the merchant, greedily counting his gold. "Why the purse I dropped had 200 pieces of gold in it. You've already stolen more than the reward! Go away or I'll tell the police."
"I'm an honest man," said the beggar defiantly. "Let us take this matter to the court."
In court, the judge patiently listened to both sides of the story of a leather bag lost and a leather bag found. He counted the coins; 100 gold coins in total. Then said, "If all was said is true then it's clear that no reward is necessary."
How did the judge rule on this case?
Hint
What was found, and what was lost?Answer
The judge then said, "Merchant, you stated that the purse you lost contained 200 pieces of gold. Well, that's a considerable loss, but the purse this beggar found had only 100 pieces of gold. Therefore, it couldn't be the one you lost." With that, the judge gave the purse with 100 pieces of gold to the beggar, and told the merchant that he did not have to pay a reward.There might just be a leather bag out there somewhere still with 200 pieces of gold in it, but don't ask the merchant, the beggar, or me.
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Comments
Clever indeed!
Justice is served!
Again, Chinahand has amazed me with his teaser skills.
Easy breezy
again, nice one from chinahand
he showed him!
Can I play the beggar? Good one OCH. More please?
Oh. So that's where my leather purse went. I lost that last week. Anyway, awesome teaser. OldChinaHand, you have some of the greatest teasers I have ever seen.
nice one, and nicely written
is this guy a man? why does he have a purse with him that is disgraceful only women carry purses (no offense to any man who owns or carries a purse im just generally speaking)
Any more comments like that Leafan and I'll hit you with my handbag!
very good! i was way off track! i figured the judge was corupt
ooh but cudnt ya think of it this way- the merchant said he'd lost a leather bag, he said nothing about losing the money inside. So technically the begger shud be given the money and the merchant the bag!! everything settled!
Superb, loved it!
Very nice!
I don't know if I'm just dumb, because no one else is commenting about itt but why wouldn't they assume the beggar, honest or not, stole the other 100. According to a perfect world where the beggar doesn't lie, and the fact that we know he didn't steal it, the answer works, but the judge doesn't know that, and it couldn't be a perfect world because the merchant didn't know the beggar wasn't lying.
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