Strips of Brass

Puzzler time.

Here we go.

Years ago, I was doing a little shopping and running my little errands in our little village, so to speak, downtown in our fair city.

And as you might expect, I was going from one business establishment to another, opening doors, closing doors, going in, transacting business, like you do when you're shopping.

One of the places I entered upon opening the door, I was surprised to see something affixed to the door that I had just opened.

Attached to the door were three brass strips. They were about four inches long and a half an inch high, and they were nice and shiny. And each was affixed with two little screws to this wooden door.

So as I opened the door to this establishment, I find myself looking right at one of these strips, which would put one of them at right at eye level with me. One was about six inches higher than that, and one was six inches below it.

And I thought, "Hmm, that's unusual."

I went to another place of business and opened its door and saw no such little strips on the door. So I went back to this first place, and I looked at the door I had first entered. But another door in that establishment had these three little brass bars attached too. They were horizontal strips of brass.

And the puzzler question is, what was this building that I had entered that had this on the door?

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

Inscriptions on Boxes

This one is a riddle from the olden days, as they say.

This comes from the days of knights and kings and fair maidens. So, forever ago.

Here it is.

In a kindgom far, far away, the fair maiden Rowena wishes to wed.

But her father, the Evil King, has devised a way to drive off her suitors.

He came up with a devious plan.

And here it is. It's very simple.

There are three boxes on the table. One is made of gold, one is made of silver, and the third is made lead.

Inside one of these boxes is a picture of the fair Princess Rowena. And it is the job of the knight to figure out which box has her picture in it, without opening any of the boxes. Whoever can figure this out, gets to marry the princess.

Now, as a hint, there are inscriptions on each of the boxes. And here they are.

On the gold box, the inscription says, "Rowena's picture is in this box."

On the silver box, the inscription says, "Rowena's picture is not in this box."

On the lead box, the inscription says, "Rowena's picture is not in the gold box."

And then the king gives the suitors a hint.

He says, "One of the statements, and only one, is true."

So the puzzler quesiton is, Where is the picture?