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        riddles >> easy >> Money In Book
        
(Message started by: SgtAcid on Dec 8^th, 2002, 4:56pm)

Title: Money In Book
Post by SgtAcid on Dec 8^th, 2002, 4:56pm

There is a rich man living with two other people his butler and his maid. One day the rich man is sitting at his desk counting his money, preparing to deposit it at the bank. When he is done he goes to the bank, but when he arrives, he realizes he left a $100 dollar bill on the desk. So he quickly called the house and told the butler that he forgot the $100 bill on the desk, and he will come home now to pick it up. When he arrived home he asked the butler what he did with the bill, the butler said he put it under the green book on the desk. When the rich man looked under the book, it wasn't there, so he asked the maid if she saw it. She said she saw the $100 bill when she was dusting and put it between pages 67 and 68 of the green book. Right then and there the rich man called the police, and knew who stole it, even before the rich man checked inside the book to see if the $100 bill was there. How did he know???

// Thread title modified by moderator on 8:21 PM 12/8/2002; please write more indicative titles in future. Thanks.

Title: Re: Here's a conundrum
Post by Chronos on Dec 8^th, 2002, 7:57pm

Note that this won't work for all books. We must also assume that the rich man knows (or thinks he knows) something about that book specifically.

Title: Re: Money In Book
Post by Garzahd on Dec 9^th, 2002, 10:30am

What sorts of books won't it work for? Choose a book at random from your house, I bet it works.

Title: Re: Money In Book
Post by SgtAcid on Dec 9^th, 2002, 10:40am

Not only a book at random try to find ANY book that it won't work for, I tried and I never found one that it didn't work for.

Title: Re: Money In Book
Post by Speaker on Dec 9^th, 2002, 4:20pm

Further evidence that it works for "any" book: I checked some of my Japanese books that read right to left, and it would have to be a rather ephemeral portrait of Franklin to fit between pages 67 and 68.

However, there must be some book, published in some place which starts with an even number. But, if there is, the wealthy gentleman would certainly be aware of this oddity, and would know what books are on his desk.

Title: Re: Money In Book
Post by Chronos on Dec 10^th, 2002, 3:39pm

I don't think I've ever seen a book for which the numbering starts with an even number. I have, however, seen books for which the numbering doesn't start with numbers, or rather with a different system of numbers. Often, the preface, table of contents, etc., will be numbered in lowercase Roman numerals, with regular Arabic numbering starting only after the Roman numbers end. However, on looking through a few books on my desk, it looks like they generally leave a page blank to accomodate this, if need be, and hold to the more conventional notational pattern.

He still should have checked the book, though, because if nothing else, his poor, innocent (but absentminded) maid might have just misremembered the page number.

Title: Re: Money In Book
Post by i_m_n_idiot on Jan 4^th, 2003, 10:06pm

maids dont dust books ;D

Title: Re: Money In Book
Post by Cyrus on Jan 6^th, 2003, 8:54am

I can think of a book that it wouldn't work with.

How about a book with writing on only 1 side of the page. Like a notebook for school for example.

(I only ever wrote on 1 side of the paper, I guess it was a waste)

Title: Re: Money In Book
Post by James Jachcik on Jan 6^th, 2003, 7:41pm

:)Page one is on the right side if the book as you open it...the bill would have to have been between pages 66 and 67 or 68 and 69 only.

Title: Re: Money In Book
Post by tchi on Mar 9^th, 2003, 7:30pm

I want to ask one tiny little thing. Since when did the rich guy tell the maid that it was in a book? He simply said that if she saw the 100 dollars. But the stupid maid said that the money was in a book a green book so how can she know if he didn't even ask her? So simple eh?

Title: Re: Money In Book
Post by wendy on Jul 23^rd, 2004, 10:40pm

Books (at least, in America) all have the odd numbers on the right-hand page, no matter what number the first page is. Incidentally, this was in an Encyclopedia Brown mystery book (anyone remember reading those?).

Title: Re: Money In Book
Post by Grimbal on Jul 24^th, 2004, 10:51am

Or simply, there was dust under the green book. So the maid did not dust under the book. So she couldn't have found the money, and therefore, the butler is lying.

I checked. Even an old book from 1650 and another from year VII of the french republic (~1800) has odd pages on the right. But I found a manual that I xeroxed, that has 2 pages per page, but single-sided. If you see what I mean. So in that case it would work.

And I have been thinking that if a single book of the library has this oddity, then just telling that the money is between pages 67 and 68 would be enough to identify the book.

Title: Re: Money In Book
Post by rmsgrey on Jul 24^th, 2004, 12:06pm

But if the maid is innocent, then why did the she say she found the money under the book? If the butler took it, then she's covering for him by supporting his alibi, so at best an accessory after the fact. Besides, that doesn't explain how the man knew it wasn't in the book without looking...

I admit that I can't remember a specific book that has the numbers on the "wrong" pages, but I have a strong feeling that I've noticed it in passing while reading a book at some point in the past (a vague memory of thinking "that's odd"). Of course, it's almost impossible to disprove that sort of feeling - I've read (an estimated) several thousand books in my life so far, and tracking them all down would be a major feat in itself...

Title: Re: Money In Book
Post by Leon on Jul 24^th, 2004, 3:43pm

on 07/23/04 at 22:40:40, wendy wrote:

I do, and I remember this one! The instant I saw the title of the thread I knew the answer. I had forgetten the name Encyclopedia Brown. I was thikning Young Sherlock holmes until you said it. Takes me back 20 some years. Awesome.

Title: Re: Money In Book
Post by Joachim on Sep 17^th, 2004, 9:54pm

The first answer that popped in my mind was: the book has less than 68 pages. After that I didn't think about it anymore.

Title: Re: Money In Book
Post by Tang on Sep 29^th, 2004, 8:07pm

This whole storey should be a little more clear, because the way the rich man asked the maid whether she saw the bill or not isn't very clear.
Was she there while he checked under the book ? or did he ask her without her knowing of the situation from the gecko...... which could mean if she didn't know anything of his panic from the bank home would mean that the butler took the money because she actually clean the desk before the richman called home and put it in between the pages. So the butler knowing now that there is 100 bill somewhere around the desk he'll search high and low and just take the money and said it's under the book....

[b][/b]

Title: Re: Money In Book
Post by coolnfundu on Nov 10^th, 2004, 10:53pm

the book had only 50 pages ... ::)