FILE No.28Unsolved
Just after midnight on the first day of the new fiscal year, a company-wide email arrived from Sawada. Sawada is normally serious and rarely jokes. (In Japan the fiscal year starts on April 1.)
Evidence: Sawada’s email
Subject: A new member joined us today
A new member has joined our family. He weighs 3,120 grams and is a healthy boy. His special skill is calling everyone around him with a loud voice. For the time being, I will be on call day and night. He immediately became the most important person in our house. Mother and baby are both well. Sawada
Sawada really was reporting the birth of his son. Yet his colleagues took it as a joke.
Why was a real birth announcement taken as a joke?
If you get stuck, open the hints one at a time, in order.
Look at the date the email arrived.
The first day of the new fiscal year is known for another event.
Though it is a birth announcement, it reads like a new-employee introduction.
Why was a real birth announcement taken as a joke?
Choose the answer closest to the truth.
A humorous introduction arrived on April 1
The answer is “a humorous introduction arrived on April 1.”
The first day of the new fiscal year is April 1, April Fools’ Day. Sawada announced his son’s birth in a humorous text like a new-employee introduction, and the email arrived just after midnight on April 1. Since the usually serious Sawada seemed to have deliberately sent a joking email, his colleagues took it as an April Fools’ joke. He was reporting the truth; the combination of date and style caused the misunderstanding.
You think a true report should be believed, and overlook the combination of date and style.
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