Brain Teasers
Dead at the Desk
Situation
Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.Situation
A secretary (or executive assistant) decides to check on her boss who she hasn't heard from in a few hours. She finds him dead behind his desk in a pool of blood. Nobody has entered the room since he opened it and turned off the alarm. The windows are closed. There is a broken pencil on the floor in front of the window. How did he die?
Hint
It wasn't the secretary, or natural causes.Answer
He had propped the window up with the pencil. A shooter in another building shot him through the pencil, causing the window to close.Hide Hint Show Hint Hide Answer Show Answer
What Next?
View a Similar Brain Teaser...
If you become a registered user you can vote on this brain teaser, keep track of which ones you have seen, and even make your own.
Solve a Puzzle
Comments
Very creative but, wouldn't the secretary have heard the shot, the slamming of the window (which could have broken from the force of slamming shut) or the sound of his body hitting the floor? Good teaser though.
ditto
really rather improbable...good, but would have been better if it were somewhat probable, something that one could think of if a reasonable amount of thought was given.
This one really didn't seem like the answer woould work out. I agree with the other comments. I just know his assistant would have heard the window slammed shut. I thought maybe he had stuck his finger and gotten lead posion.
I think it's obvious why this works out so well. The secretary had to powder her nose that morning, and that's when her boss was shot.
I love it!!
This is now one of my Favorites!
This is now one of my Favorites!
Since this was my first treaser, they should get better, I hope. Thank you for your comments. I'm glad you liked it
I agree with some of the others, rather improbable story. Besides, a pencil hit by a bullet is going to fly across the room, not just fall by the window. And who props a window open with a pencil?
I thought he like.. went suicide with a pencil... A SHARPENED pencil. It's highly possible, isn't it? Then again, I'm a weirdooo.... Yeah. It was good, all in all.
Clever - but my thought was that he tripped & stabbed himself. The pencil broke when he hit the floor.
May 18, 2005
I like your way of thinking, send me another
there is a duplicate of this with an ice block..
That one was somewhat better, there are at least some POSSIBLE explanations, but this one is really improbable.
You should put in there that the secretary went for a coffee break somewhere... maybe in the hint?
That one was somewhat better, there are at least some POSSIBLE explanations, but this one is really improbable.
You should put in there that the secretary went for a coffee break somewhere... maybe in the hint?
I was thinking that the murderer was waiting in the room overnight or something because you specified "no one entered since (ul) he turned off the alarm". Then the murderer stabbed him with the pencil until the pencil broke. Pretty gross.
i was going with "he shot himself" - even though they didn't mention that there was a gun in the room, they didn't say specifically that the ONLY thing in the room was a pencil...(and in case you're wondering, the pencil was a symbol of the man - they'd both "snapped")
I liked the way you were politically correct with the secretary
Improbable, but creative.
This would never happen!!!
That must be one sharp shooter....My guess was he went suicidal with the pencil. Hey...Suicidal, Sara Sidle (CSI member)....connection? Oh well...I'm easily distracted. Good teaser, I liked it.
Seriously, WHAT are the chances of someone shooting through a pencil?
To post a comment, please create an account and sign in.
Follow Braingle!