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        riddles >> what happened >> lost jewelry
        
(Message started by: BenVitale on Jun 21^st, 2009, 1:35pm)

Title: lost jewelry
Post by BenVitale on Jun 21^st, 2009, 1:35pm

A couple went on holiday for three weeks. They carefully locked their house, and had a neighbor check on the place while they were gone. When they returned, the wife was distressed to learn that because there had been a power failure she had lost all her fine jewelry. She had hidden the jewelry in what she thought was a very safe place. She was not robbed. Her jewelry was lost by accident. Why?

Title: Re: lost jewelry
Post by Grimbal on Jun 22^nd, 2009, 1:20am

[hide]It was winter. The house was freezing. The neighbor decided to light a fire in the chimney. The jewelry was hidden in a hollow log.[/hide]

or

[hide]The jewelry was hidden in a turkey in the freezer. Because of the power cut the food started to rot. The helpful neighbor threw the contents of the freezer away.[/hide]

Title: Re: lost jewelry
Post by chronodekar on Jun 25^th, 2009, 5:09am

Grimbal,

[hide] Your first answer does not really address the part of the question which states that the jewels were "lost". If they were in a hidden log, at best they might get de-valued,but most certainly NOT lost.

It was hidden in food that was thrown out is best answer I feel.[/hide]

-chronodekar

Title: Re: lost jewelry
Post by Grimbal on Jun 25^th, 2009, 8:23am

If it is gold, the jewelry could melt and be ruined to a point where it can be considered lost.

Title: Re: lost jewelry
Post by ima1trkpny on Jun 25^th, 2009, 10:55am

The power failure was caused by the pole outside the house falling down (in which she'd hidden her jewelry) and to fix the power, the pole had been removed (taking her jewelry with it) and replaced with a new one.

Title: Re: lost jewelry
Post by chronodekar on Jun 30^th, 2009, 2:52am

on 06/25/09 at 08:23:46, Grimbal wrote:

... the jewelry could melt ... .

:P You have got to be kidding me. What kind of jewelery store worth it's salt sells jewels that *might* "melt" under normal conditions?

I'm going to take it that you meant the food melted and the jewels got spoiled to the point of no-return. Depending on the food, I guess I can concede that point. I'm not good with chemistry,but I guess it IS a possibility.

On a silly note, it must have been one silly female to keep your valuables in a curry (or the like...) ;D

ima1trkpny,

I don't like your answer (personal preference). BUT, the way the question is stated, there is no reason why the jewels could not be hidden outside the house, so ... I guess it IS a valid answer.

But it doesn't satisfy my nit-pickiness. :P

;)

-chronodekar

Title: Re: lost jewelry
Post by towr on Jun 30^th, 2009, 3:10am

on 06/30/09 at 02:52:20, chronodekar wrote:

:P You have got to be kidding me. What kind of jewelery store worth it's salt sells jewels that *might* "melt" under normal conditions?

Remember that we're taking about the fire-place scenario here. So the "normal condition" may be up to 800 degrees centigrade. Which is very near the melting point of 14k yellow gold (http://en.allexperts.com/q/Jewelry-Gems-Minerals-689/melting-point-gold.htm).

Title: Re: lost jewelry
Post by Grimbal on Jun 30^th, 2009, 6:01am

Yep, it was a followup of reply #1, 1st line.

But to be frank, I once tried to melt pure gold with a blowtorch, it was hard to reach the melting temperature. It could well be a normal chimney fire would leave gold jewelry undamaged.

Title: Re: lost jewelry
Post by chronodekar on Jul 1^st, 2009, 10:08pm

on 06/30/09 at 03:10:29, towr wrote:

Remember that we're taking about the fire-place scenario here.

Everything's all-right then. I was referring to the second scenario.... :-[

-chronodekar

Title: Re: lost jewelry
Post by Death on Apr 26^th, 2010, 9:13am

[hide]Her jewelry was so valuable that she couldn't bear the thought of anyone else having them, so she placed them in a safe with a content-self-destruct routine in case someone broke into the safe/the safe lost power (it's an electronic safe and knocking the power out would count as trying to break into it).[/hide]

[hide]The power cut knocked the safe onto it's backup generator, but since she was on holiday the generator ran to the ground and by the time she came back the safe had lost power and destroyed the jewels.[/hide]

:D

Title: Re: lost jewelry
Post by icecoldcelt on May 4^th, 2010, 10:32am

Regarding the fireplace situation, perhaps all of the jewelry was comprised entirely of diamonds?

I think that a carton of bad milk would be a bit odiferous. Maybe even to the point of it being thrown out, even if nothing else was.

Title: Re: lost jewelry
Post by Grimbal on May 14^th, 2010, 5:53am

I also tried to burn a diamond with a blowtorch (a small raw diamond) it started to glow bright yellow but didn't burn.

Title: Re: lost jewelry
Post by icecoldcelt on May 17^th, 2010, 9:03am

Perhaps if it was in a magnesium and/or chrome setting?

<edit> Which is unlikely, of course, but presented for the sake of speculation. </edit>

Title: Re: lost jewelry
Post by mikeseo on May 27^th, 2010, 3:00am

[hide]The jewellery was hidden in a hollowed out book. With no TV to watch the neighbour popped round and started to read the first few chapters (before the hollow bit). After becoming interested the neighbour took the book home with him. However the lure of the TV at his house was to great and he left the book on the side. His wife later collected it along with many other items and gave them to several charity shops. Whoever bought the book gave it as a birthday present for a young nephew but the book remained unread and the jewellery was never found.[/hide]