FILE No.137Unsolved
100 ten-thousand-yen bills (1 million yen) were stolen from a company safe. The stolen bills were new bills with consecutive serial numbers, and the numbers are in the bank's records.
The suspect said, "This is my salary," and showed new bills in his wallet. Of the 5 bills, the numbers of 3 appeared exactly as they are on the list of stolen bill numbers. The suspect's salary is transferred to his account from a different bank, and he withdrew it himself. Each bill has a different number, and no two bills have the same number.
What can be said for certain from this?
If you get stuck, open the hints one at a time, in order.
Does each bill have a different number?
How many bills on the list match?
Are "holding stolen bills" and "being the culprit" the same?
What can be said for certain from this?
Choose the answer closest to the truth.
The 3 bills in the wallet are the stolen bills themselves
The answer is "The 3 bills in the wallet are the stolen bills themselves."
Each bill has a different number, so no two bills share a number. The 3 bills whose numbers are on the list are the stolen bills themselves. The explanation "it's my salary" does not hold, at least for these 3 bills.
Whether the suspect is the culprit cannot be known from this (it remains possible the stolen bills passed from person to person). "It just happened to be the same number" is impossible, and there is no reason to think the record is wrong.
Because you leap to "has the stolen bills, therefore the culprit."
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