Mystery Questions list, at long last

[Zorn of Zorna]

This may be the last version of this list that gets posted here. I
don't know whether I'll have net access after the end of August. If
you've got comments, please send me e-mail before 8/30/90. The last
version was posted on 6/8/90; there've been several fairly substantial
revisions since then, mainly involving the addition of variant problem
statements and answers to the answer list. There are also a couple of
new questions since last time I posted the list. Note that the answer
list is NOT rot-13 encoded any more.
Many thanks to all of you who've helped with this list over the last
three years. I obviously couldn't have put this together without the
contributors.

Jed's List of Mystery Questions

History:
original compilation 11/28/87
major revision 08/09/89
further additions 08/23/89 - 08/10/90
variants added to answer list 07/04/90
editing and some renumbering 07/25/90 - 08/16/90

"A man lies dead in a room with fifty-three bicycles in front of him.
What happened?"

This is a list of what I refer to (for lack of a better name) as
mystery questions. The game of mystery questions is usually played as
follows: a situation like the one above is presented to a group of
players, who must then try to find out more about the situation by
asking further questions. The person who initially presented the
situation can only answer "yes" or "no" to questions (or occasionally
"irrelevant" or "doesn't matter").

My list has been divided into two sections. Section 1 consists of
mystery questions which exist in a realistic world; they could all take
place in reality. Section 2 consists of several varieties of questions:
those which involve double meanings for one or more words; those which
could not possibly take place in reality as we know it; those which, in
my opinion, are simple enough to be easily guessed straightaway (like a
normal riddle) instead of requiring yes-or-no questions to be asked; and
those which, by my admittedly arbitrary standards, are just silly. The
reason these last are included on the list at all is that those I
consider silly may be thought wonderful by others. Another way of
looking at it is that the second section contains questions you may not
want to spend a long time trying to solve. Also, the second section
gets (in my opinion) progressively somewhat sillier; the last questions
are those I like least (though this isn't true of the first section).

When I know who first told me the current version of a question, I've
put initials in parentheses after the question statement; there's a key
to these acknowledgments at the end of the list. The word "original"
following an attribution means that, to the best of my knowledge, the
cited person invented that question. If a given question isn't marked
"original" but is attributed, that just means that's the first person I
heard it from (or the first person from whom I heard it as a mystery
question -- I've heard several of these as riddles before). I would
appreciate it if attributions for originals in the below list were not
taken out; but this list is hereby entered into the public domain, so do
with it what you wish.

There are many possible wordings for most of these. Most of them
have what I consider the best wording of the variants I've heard; if you
think there's a better way of putting one or more of them, or if you
don't like my categorization of any of them, or if you have any other
comments or suggestions, please drop me a note. If you know others not
on this list, please send them to me. Answers will follow in a separate
posting. Also in the answer list, as of 07/04/90, are variant problem
statements and variant answers.
Of course, in telling a group of players one of these situations, you
can add or remove details, either to make getting the answer harder or
easier, or simply to throw in red herrings. I've made a few specific
suggestions along these lines in the answers.

Section 1: "Normal" mystery questions.

1.1. In the middle of the ocean is a yacht. Several corpses are
floating in the water nearby. (SJ)

1.2. Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice all live in the same house. Bob
and Carol go out to a movie, and when they return, Alice is lying dead
on the floor in a puddle of water and glass. It is obvious that Ted
killed her but Ted is not prosecuted or severely punished.

1.3. A woman came home with a bag of groceries, got the mail, and
walked into the house. On the way to the kitchen, she went through the
living room and looked at her husband, who had blown his brains out.
She then continued to the kitchen, put away the groceries, and made
dinner. (partial JM wording)

1.4. A body is discovered in a park in Chicago in the middle of summer.
It has a fractured skull and many other broken bones, but the cause of
death was hypothermia. (MI, from _Hill Street Blues_)

1.5. A man lives on the twelfth floor of an apartment building. Every
morning he takes the elevator down to the lobby and leaves the building.
In the evening, he gets into the elevator, and, if there is someone else
in the elevator -- or if it was raining that day -- he goes back to his
floor directly. However, if there is nobody else in the elevator and it
hasn't rained, he goes to the 10th floor and walks up two flights of
stairs to his room. (MH)

1.6. A woman has incontrovertible proof in court that her husband was
murdered by her sister. The judge declares, "This is the strangest case
I've ever seen. Though it's a cut-and-dried case, this woman cannot be
punished." (This is different from #1.43.) (MH)

1.7. A man walks into a bar and asks for a drink. The bartender pulls
out a gun and points it at him. The man says, "Thank you," and walks
out. (DVS)

1.8. A man is in a returning from Switzerland by train. If he had been
in a non-smoking car he would have died. (DVS; MC wording)

1.9. Music stops and a woman dies. (DVS)

1.10. A man goes into a restaurant, orders abalone, eats one bite, and
kills himself. (TM and JM wording)

1.11. A man is found hanging in a locked room with a puddle of water
under his feet.

1.12. A man is dead in a puddle of blood and water on the floor of a
locked room.

1.13. A man is lying, dead, face down in the desert wearing a backpack.
(This is different from #1.14, #2.11, and #2.12.)

1.14. A man is lying face down, dead, in the desert, with a match near
his outstretched hand. (This is different from #1.13, #2.11, and
#2.12.) (JH; partial JM wording)

1.15. A man is driving his car. He turns on the radio, listens for
five minutes, turns around, goes home, and shoots his wife.

1.16. A man driving his car turns on the radio. He then pulls over to
the side of the road and shoots himself.

1.17. A man is dead in a room with a small pile of pieces of wood and
sawdust in one corner. (from "Coroner's Inquest," by Marc Connelly)

1.18. A pile of sawdust, no net, a man dies. (PRO)

1.19. A rope breaks. A bell rings. A man dies. (KH)

1.20. A man sitting on a park bench reads a newspaper article headlined
"Death at Sea" and says, "A murder has been committed!"

1.21. A man is riding a subway. He meets a one-armed man, who pulls
out a gun and shoots him. (SJ)

1.22. Two women are talking. One goes into the bathroom, comes out
five minutes later, and kills the other.

1.23. A man is sitting in bed. He makes a phone call, says nothing,
then goes to sleep. (SJ)

1.24. A man kills his wife, then goes inside his house and kills
himself. (DH original, from "Nightmare in Yellow," by Fredric Brown)

1.25. Abel walks out of the ocean. Cain asks him who he is, and Abel
answers. Cain kills Abel. (MWD original)

1.26. Two men enter a bar. They both order identical drinks. One
lives; the other dies. (CR; partial JM wording)

1.27. Joe leaves his house, wearing a mask and carrying an empty sack.
An hour later he returns. The sack is now full. He goes into a room
and turns out the lights. (AL)

1.28. A man takes a two week cruise to Mexico from the U.S. Shortly
after he gets back, he takes a three-day cruise which doesn't stop at
any other ports. He stays in his cabin all the time on both cruises.
As a result, he makes $250,000. (MI, from "The Wager")

1.29. Hans and Fritz are German spies during World War II. They try to
enter America, posing as returning tourists. Hans is immediately
arrested. (JM)

1.30. Tim and Greg were talking. Tim said "The terror of flight".
Greg said "The gloom of the grave". Greg was arrested. (KH, from "No
Refuge Could Save," by Isaac Asimov)

1.31. A man is found dead in his parked car. Tire tracks lead up to
the car and away. (SD)

1.32. A man dies in his own home. (ME original)

1.33. A woman in Paris in 1895 is waiting for her husband to come home.
When he arrives, the house has burned to the ground and she's dead.
(JM)

1.34. A man gets onto an elevator. When the elevator stops, he knows
his wife is dead. (LA; partial KH wording)

1.35. A policeman follows a burglar into a bar. When he enters the bar
he finds two similar-looking men, dressed alike, with the loot between
them. After several minutes he arrests one of the men. (PRO, from
"Which is Which?" by Isaac Asimov; partial JM wording)

1.36. She lost her job when she invited them to dinner. (DS original)

1.37. He couldn't find a chair, so he died. (RM; KH wording)

1.38. A car without a driver moves; a man dies. (EMS)

1.39. As I drive to work on my motorcycle, there is one corner which I
go around at a certain speed whether it's rainy or sunny. If it's
cloudy but not raining, however, I usually go faster. (SW original)

1.40. A woman throws something out a window and dies. (JM)

1.41. An avid birdwatcher sees an unexpected bird. Soon he's dead.
(RSB original)

1.42. At the bottom of the sea there lies a ship worth millons of
dollars that will never be recovered. (TF original)

1.43. Two brothers are involved in a murder. Though it's clear that
one of them actually committed the crime, neither can be punished.
(This is different from #1.6.) (from "Unreasonable Doubt," by Stanley
Ellin)

1.44. A man ran into a fire, and lived. A man stayed where there was
no fire, and died. (EW original)

1.45. A man is lying dead in a room. There is a large pile of gold and
jewels on the floor, a chandelier attached to the ceiling, and a large
open window. (DVS; partial JM wording)

1.46. If he'd turned on the light, he'd have lived. (JM)

Section 2: Silly setups, double meanings, fictional settings, and
one-shots.

2.1. A man lies dead in a room with fifty-three bicycles in front of
him.

2.2. A man shoots himself, and dies. (HL)

2.3. A man walks into a room, shoots, and kills himself. (HL)

2.4. Adults are holding children, waiting their turn. The children are
handed (one at a time, usually) to a man, who holds them while a woman
shoots them. If the child is crying, the man tries to stop the crying
before the child is shot. (ML)

2.5. Hiking in the mountains, you walk past a large field and camp a
few miles farther on, at a stream. It snows in the night, and the next
day you find a cabin in the field with two dead bodies inside. (KL; KD
and partial JM wording)

2.6. A man pushes a car up to a hotel and tells the owner he's
bankrupt. (DVS; partial AL and JM wording)

2.7. A horse jumps over a tower and lands on a man, who disappears.
(ES original)

2.8. As a man jumps out of a window, he hears the telephone ring and
regrets having jumped. (from "Some Days are Like That," by Bruce J.
Balfour; partial JM wording)

2.9. A man is found dead on the floor in the living room. (ME
original)

2.10. A man is sitting in a train compartment. He sees a three-
fingered hand through the compartment window, in the hallway of the
train. He opens the compartment door and shoots the person with the
three-fingered hand, but he goes free. (MEB)

2.11. There is a dead man lying in the desert next to a rock. (This is
different from #1.13, #1.14, and #2.12.) (GH)

2.12. A man is found dead in the arctic with a pack on his back. (This
is different from #1.13, #1.14, and #2.11.) (PRO)

2.13. A man marries twenty women in his village but isn't charged with
polygamy.

2.14. It's the year 860 A.D., at Camelot. Two priests are sitting in
the castle's chapel. The queen attacks the king. The two priests rise,
shake hands, and leave the room. (EMS)

2.15. Two people are talking long distance on the phone; one is in an
East-Coast state, the other is in a West-Coast state. The first asks
the other "What time is it?", hears the answer, and says, "That's funny.
It's the same time here!" (EMS)

2.16. A man is alone on an island with no food and no water, yet he
does not fear for his life. (MN)

2.17. A woman walks up to a door and knocks. Another woman answers the
door. The woman outside kills the woman inside. (GH)

2.18. There is blood on the ceiling of my bedroom. (MI original)

2.19. A woman goes into a convenience store to buy a can of Coke. She
pays for it with a $20 bill and receives $22 in change. (MI; partial MB
wording)

2.20. A newspaper reported that Jacques Dubois finished first in the
walking race held in Paris. The number of miles he walked was given
as 62,137. The article was not in error. (AR, quoting Richard Fowell;
MB wording)

2.21. A train pulls into a station, but none of the waiting passengers
move. (MN)

2.22. In his own home a man watches as a woman dies, yet does nothing
to save her. (MN)

2.23. There are a carrot, a pile of pebbles, and a pipe lying together
in the middle of a field. (PRO; partial JM wording)

2.24. The telephone rang in the middle of the night and the woman woke
up. When she answered it the caller hung up. The caller felt better.
(SS)

2.25. Two people are playing cards. One looks around and realizes he's
going to die. (JM original)

2.26. A man is found dead in an alley lying in a pool of red with two
sticks crossed near his head. (PRO)

2.27. A man called to a waiter in a restaurant, "There's a fly in my
tea!" "I will bring you a fresh cup of tea," said the waiter. After a
few moments, the man called out, "This is the same cup of tea!" How did
he know? (PRO)

2.28. A man drives over a broken glass bottle. He travels the last 100
miles of the Sahara 5000 roadrace with a flat tire. (EMS)

2.29. An ordinary American citizen, with a clean police record but no
passport, managed to visit over thirty foreign countries. He was
welcomed in each country, and left each one of his own accord. He did
this in one day. (PRO)

2.30. Three heavy people try to crowd under one umbrella, but nobody
gets wet. (CC)

2.31. A black man dressed all in black, wearing a black mask, stands at
a crossroads in a totally black-painted town. All of the streetlights
in town are broken. There is no moon. A black-painted car without
headlights drives straight toward him, but turns in time and doesn't hit
him. (AL and RM wording)

2.32. The wind stopped blowing and the man died. (PRO)

2.33. Joe wants to go home, but he can't go home, because the man
in the mask is waiting for him. (AL wording)

2.34. A man is holding a box. Though he cannot see into it, he knows
what's inside. (ES original)

2.35. A man was walking along some railroad tracks when he noticed that
a train was coming. He walked toward the train before stepping aside.
(RM)

2.36. A man was going about his daily occupation when he noticed that
his shirt was torn. 15 minutes later, he was dead. (RM)

2.37. Bruce wins the race, but he gets no trophy. (EMS)

2.38. There is a dead man, a beetle on top of a book, and a pile of
bricks. (MN)

2.39. King Henry VIII is lying at the bottom of the stairs with a gash
across his face. (PRO)

2.40. A man travels to twenty countries and stays in each country for a
month. During this time he never sees the light of day. (PRO)

2.41. A man puts a quarter down, and leaves. (PRO)

2.42. A man lies dead next to a feather. (PRO)

2.43. A woman opens an envelope and dyes. (AL)

2.44. A dish moves, a scientist makes a discovery. (MN)

2.45. An Arab sheikh tells his two sons that are to race their camels
to a distant city to see who will inherit his fortune. The one whose
camel arrives last will win. The brothers, after wandering aimlessly
for days, ask a wise man for advise. After hearing the advice they jump
on the camels and race as fast as they can to their destination. (PRO)

2.46. Two children born in the same hospital, in the same hour, day,
and year, have the same mother and father, but are not twins. (SS)

2.47. A couple will build a square house. In each wall they'll have a
window, and each window will face north. (SS)

2.48. A boy and his father are injured in a car accident. Both are
taken to a hospital. The father dies at arrival, but the boy lives
and is taken to surgery. A grey-haired, bespectacled surgeon looks at
the boy and says, "I cannot operate on this boy -- he's my son." (JV)

2.49. A husband coming home hears his wife call "Bill, don't kill me!".
He walks in and finds his wife dead. Inside are a postman, a doctor,
and a lawyer, none of whom the husband knows. The husband immediately
realizes the postman killed his wife. (EMS; partial JM wording)

2.50. The pope is giving a speech. A man in the audience shoots the
mayor who is behind the pope. (PRO)

2.51. A man is found dead outside a large marble building with three
holes in him. (PRO)

2.52. A man pleads with his boss not to fly to Chicago. The boss goes
anyway, and when he returns, he fires the man. (EMS)

2.53. On an archeological dig, the frozen remains of a man and woman
are found. Immediately, the archeologists realize that the remains are
those of Adam and Eve. (EMS)

2.54. A man carrying an attache case full of $20 bills falls on the way
to the bank and is never seen again. (PRO)

2.55. A woman comes home, sees Spaghetti on the wall and kills her
husband. (ST original)

2.56. She said "I love you," and died. (EMS)

2.57. A man goes home, turns out the light, and goes to bed. He wakes
up the next morning, turns on the radio, and kills himself. (CR;
partial JM wording)

2.58. A raft carrying passengers took a trip down a river. None of the
passengers made it home alive. (CR; partial JM wording)

2.59. A man is lying dead in a pool of blood and glass. (PRO)

2.60. The seals came up to do their show but immediately dove back into
the water. (PRO)

Attributions key:
LA == Laura Almasy MEB == Michael E. Bernstein
RSB == Ranjit S. Bhatnagar MB == Mark Brader
CC == Chris Cole MC == Matt Crawford
MWD == Matthew William Daly KD == Ken Duisenberg
SD == Sylvia Dutcher ME == Marguerite Eisenstein
TF == Thomas Freeman JH == Joaquin Hartman
MH == Marcy Hartman KH == Karl Heuer
GH == Geoff Hopcraft DH == David Huddleston
MI == Mark Isaak SJ == Steve Jacquot
KL == Ken Largman AL == Andy Latto
HL == Howard Lazoff ML == Merlyn LeRoy
RM == "Reaper Man" (real name unknown)
TM == Ted McCabe JM == Jim Moskowitz
MN == Jan Mark Noworolski PRO == Peter R. Olpe (from his list)
AR == Achut Reddy CR == Charles Renert
EMS == Ellen M. Sentovich (from her list)
SS == Sasan Soltani ES == Eric Stephan
DS == Diana Stiefbold ST == Simon Travaglia
DVS == David Van Stone JV == Jaime Villacorte
EW == Eric Wang SW == Steve Wilson (not sure of name)

Special thanks to Jim Moskowitz, Karl Heuer, and Mark Brader, for a lot
of discussion of small but important details and wording; and to Marcy
Hartman, who told me my first mystery question when I was about 8.

--
{hartman@{campus.swarthmore.edu, swarthmr.bitnet}, ...!bpa!swatsun!hartman}
"Unrequited Love, n. Love that is paid back with disinterest."
--L. A. Rollins, "All-New Additions to Lucifer's Lexicon"