Solve Enjoyable Enigmas with Mr.E's Challenge

[Borg]

This is the famous Chinese murder mystery that has been claimed to be the first instance of forensic science in recorded history:

In a rural village a farmer is found dead. The local law officer determines he was killed by a savage blow from a shovel.

He orders all the village farmers to assemble in the town square with their shovels, and they are required to stand at attention holding their shovels with the spade end up in the air.

He paces back and forth, back and forth, for half an hour, studying the shovels. None of them shows any sign of blood or tissue. Then, he stops in front of one man, and orders him arrested for the murder.

What did he see that tipped him off?

The guilty farmer had the only clean shovel.

 

[ABD EL HAMEED]

The guilty farmer had the only clean shovel.

I don't think so, he said it was something that developed over the half hour or maybe he's misleading us...

 

[Enigman]

stingy being synonymous to cheapskate?
Why do we have to speak #$$@% English, no fair, it's your first language :(

That would be my third language.

 

[Enigman]

The guilty farmer had the only clean shovel.

Already tried it in #158

 

[drizzle]

That would be my third language.

Arabic is your second?


I would say a crow landed on the farmers head, Zshoe...

 

[Enigman]

Arabic is your second?

Ah, if only I were so lucky milady but my second language is Jabberwock...Japanese* would be my fourth if only to learn to write haiku. But kanji is a terrible thing to learn...

*There's also the bonus that I would be able to read the manga Raws which are always released before the translations...

 

[zoobyshoe]

No one has yet solved the Chinese murder. One person, however, has stumbled into the right ballpark.

Speaking of which, if you're out there in the outfield, a batter might hit this kind of ball. If you catch it, he'll be out, and the Chinese murder will be solved.

 

[Enigman]

The sample space for the ball park:

-Odour because the criminal was nervous
-Worms?

-A spot of the victim's blood on him?
-I would say a crow landed on the farmers head, Zshoe...

-Probably more in the lines of blood clotting...
-EDIT: or perhaps all others except the murderer became tired of holding spades up in the air and dropped them while only the murderer kept the spade up in air so that he doesn't seem suspicious
-The murderer broke his shovel and then glued the spade and handle together...the glue melted off.
-They probably didn't have luminol, did they?
-Or perhaps they used a dog to smell him out by the smell of blood.<It does go against the storyline but that's what I would have done.>

 

[zoobyshoe]

I don't play ball and the only relevant thing from all the mangas I have read seems to be the huge glove the guy who plays instead of wicket keeper plays...

Not cricket.

That was a clue.

 

[Enigman]

Okay neglecting the puzzle entirely and focussing on what I read up on wiki about baseball and your hints:
Why flies?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Okay neglecting the puzzle entirely and focussing on what I read up on wiki about baseball and your hints:
Why flies?

Specifically: blow flies.

 

[Enigman]

On the spade? ...Wow, what a way to get caught...foiled by flies...

 

[BobG]

Sherlock Holmes' sidekick, Dr. Watson, was a medical doctor. When he set up practice he took over the office and clients of a doctor who was retiring from a life-long practice there. This office was on the second floor of a wooden building. There happened to be another Doctor in the same building, but access to his office was by a different set of stairs. By coincidence, the doctor currently there also took over the office and clients from a previous doctor who retired from life-long practice there, about the same time as Watson's predecessor.

The first times Holmes visited Watson's office he instantly congratulated him on having taken over for the far more successful of the two previous doctors. He was right, but Watson was baffled by how he could have known that was the case.

How could Holmes know, with a mere superficial look at the exterior of the two different offices, that Watson's predecessor had been the more popular and sought after doctor?

Offhand I would say the extent of wearing out of benches in waiting room could serve as a pointer, especially towards the edges -If its too crowded. Recent renovations, better taste in decoration etc. would be other considerations. The face of the receptionist may be a clue too...

A real life scenario ... very similar:

Then, there was the furniture. In the waiting room of the practice the two doctors ran, the chairs badly needed reupholstering. What was unusual was that the chairs were worn down on the front edges of the seats and armrests instead of on the back areas, which would have been more typical.

It was the chairs, or more accurately, the person hired to re-upholster the chairs, that gave Dr. Meyer Friedman the first clue that something might be wrong with his cardiology patients (besides their heart problems). It led to Friedman's theory that Type-A personalities (chronically angry and impatient) have a higher risk of heart problems than average people.

 

[zoobyshoe]

On the spade? ...Wow, what a way to get caught...foiled by flies...

No doubt the killer wiped the spade, but the police official was apparently experience enough to know blowflies would be attracted to the trace blood. When you see flies landing on one spade, but no others, there has to be a good reason for that.

Strictly speaking, your bloodhounds would also have worked, but I'm not sure the Chinese had developed blood hounds.

 

[lendav_rott]

I didn't know there was a Sherlock Holmes or whatever the local equivalent might be, in China xD

 

[Enigman]

Actually Sherlock Holmes did go to China after Richenbach falls. More specifically Tibet, where he met the Dalai Lama
under the name of Sigerson.

 

[Enigman]

A duke was hunting in the forest with his men-at-arms and servants when he came across a tree. Upon it, archery targets were painted and smack in the middle of each was an arrow. "Who is this incredibly fine archer?" cried the duke. "I must find him!"

After continuing through the forest for a few miles he came across a small boy carrying a bow and arrow. Eventually the boy admitted that it was he who shot the arrows plumb in the center of all the targets. "You didn't just walk up to the targets and hammer the arrows into the middle, did you?" asked the duke worriedly. "No my lord. I shot them from a hundred paces. I swear it by all that I hold
holy." "That is truly astonishing," said the duke. "I hereby admit you into my service."

The boy thanked him profusely. "But I must ask one favor in return," the duke continued. "You must tell me how you came to be such an outstanding shot."

How'd he get to be such a good shot?
(Got this off from the web...quite silly really)

 

[zoobyshoe]

"You must tell me how you came to be such an outstanding shot."

How'd he get to be such a good shot?
(Got this off from the web...quite silly really)

Spoiler

The answer is probably ironic. His expertise was gained in poaching the game on the Duke's land, I'll bet.

 

[drizzle]

Why do we have to speak #$$@% English, no fair, it's your first language :(

Just saw that. Really? Thanks, I suppose.

 

[Enigman]

Spoiler

The answer is probably ironic. His expertise was gained in poaching the game on the Duke's land, I'll bet.

He's not a good shot -the story is quite misleading on that. Don't let it fool you.

 

[zoobyshoe]

He's not a good shot -the story is quite misleading on that. Don't let it fool you.

Spoiler

In that case, it was probably a matter of shooting first and painting the targets second.

 

[Enigman]

Yep. That's it.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Yep. That's it.

It's funny: the only reason that occurred to me is that a guy who used to post here, and who used to write some very strange humor, said his humor was based on identifying a hit and then drawing a target around it.

I didn't understand 64.973% of his jokes, but they always made me chuckle: you could always tell they'd be funny if you only knew what they meant.

 

[drizzle]

Lol Zshoe! You don't know who's the member?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Lol Zshoe! You don't know who's the member?

I know who's the member. I don't think Enigman knows him. He stormed off before Enigman showed up. The correct answer is:

Spoiler

Jimmy Snyder

 

[drizzle]

Oh, of course!
I miss him. :(

 

[zoobyshoe]

I found this on the web:

Acting on an anonymous phone call, the police raid a house to arrest a suspected murderer. They don't know what he looks like but they know his name is John and that he is inside the house. The police bust in on a carpenter, a lorry driver, a mechanic and a fireman all playing poker. Without hesitation or communication of any kind, they immediately arrest the fireman.

None of the card players was wearing a name tag. And no flies are involved this time.

How do they know they've got their man?

 

[lendav_rott]

Spoiler

The fireman is the only man at the poker table

 

[zoobyshoe]

That is correct.

Put your answers in spoilers, though, in case other people still want to ponder the problem.

 

[lendav_rott]

-It doesn't burn in fire (no matter the temperature) , doesn't drown under water nor does rot in the soil. What is it?
-Give me food and I will live, give me water and I will die. What am I?