[Guest]

Private detective Talha found out that a thief had broken into Mr.Lewis' house. He knew who was the man who broke in to the house but he didnt have enough evidence to tell the police. He also knew what the man wanted, it was a top secret file about a case on which detective Talha was working. Mr. Talha's only concern was that file.

He asked Mr. Lewis where he kept it he said that he kept it in his bedroom in a table that had five drawers. The file was in the bottom most drawer. He also told him that he had left his bedroom for just about a minute and when he came back he figured out that someone had broken in and took something, he didnt check whether the file was there or not. But he told him that he had changed the name of the file in case such an incident would happen.

Mr. Talha went into Mr. Lewis' house and went straight into the bedroom he saw that all the five drawers were fully open and before he could do anything else, the police come in and told him to leave the crime scene .

However, he had figured out whether the file was taken or not.

Was the file taken or not ? and, How did Detective Talha find that out ?

BTW, this is my first riddle

Edited April 8, 2009 by Talha

[Guest]

he was the theif?

[Guest]

he was the theif?

No he wasnt .

[Guest]

he saw that all 5 drawers were completely empty. As everything had been taken, so has the file in question!

[Guest]

he saw that all 5 drawers were completely empty. As everything had been taken, so has the file in question!

No sry i didnt mention that ( i will edit ) but he only saw that the drawers were open couldnt see in them

[Guest]

Private detective Talha found out that a thief had broken into Mr.Lewis' house. He knew who was the man who broke in to the house but he didnt have enough evidence to tell the police. He also knew what the man wanted, it was a top secret file about a case on which detective Talha was working. Mr. Talha's only concern was that file.

He asked Mr. Lewis where he kept it he said that he kept it in his bedroom in a table that had five drawers. The file was in the bottom most drawer. He also told him that he had left his bedroom for just about a minute and when he came back he figured out that someone had broken in and took something, he didnt check whether the file was there or not. But he told him that he had changed the name of the file in case such an incident would happen.

Mr. Talha went into Mr. Lewis' house and went straight into the bedroom he saw that all the five drawers were fully open and before he could do anything else, the police come in and told him to leave the crime scene .

However, he had figured out whether the file was taken or not.

Was the file taken or not ? and, How did Detective Talha find that out ?

BTW, this is my first riddle

Mr. Talha walked into the room and saw the dresser. Something about the way the drawers had been pulled out told him that the file was still there...

He figured out that the thief had started with the bottom drawer, and worked his way up. Had he started from the top, he would have had to push the drawer back in before moving to the next one down.

In this case, it is most likely that each drawer moving up from the bottom was probably pulled out slightly further than the one below it. Had the robber found what he was looking for in the first drawer, he would not have continued looking in the drawers above.

[DudleyDude]

He knew the file was quite heavy and if it was in the drawer with all the other drawers open, the table would have tipped over?? So he knew the file must have been taken?

[Guest]

This is my first time responding to anything, and this is what I think:

The file was not stolen. Assuming the theft had to do with the file, if the theif had found the file, he would not have opened any drawers other than the bottom one. If he had opened them from top to bottom, he would have had to close the above drawers to see into the bottom drawer. Since all 5 were fully open, it can be assumed that the thief did not find what he was looking for in the bottom drawer.

[DudleyDude]

The file was not taken. If the thief was there specifically for the file and had found it, there would have been no reason to keep opening drawers. The thief must have started with the bottom drawer and worked his way up looking for the file. The fact that he kept opening drawers indicates that he did not find the file in the bottom drawer.

[Guest]

Got here too late.

I like that riddle, good one.

Although since the name of the file had been chosen, there is a chance that the thief took it out but kept looking for more. So not totally conclusive. Still a good riddle.

[Guest]

if he started at the top and found the file at the bottom the top 4 drawers would have been closed because he would have needed to close them to see in the drawer below. If he started at the bottom and found the file the other drawers would never have been opened. hence he didn't find the file.

[Guest]

I'm thinking something like Adam.

And i think the thief didn't take it

[Guest]

Mr. Talha walked into the room and saw the dresser. Something about the way the drawers had been pulled out told him that the file was still there...

He figured out that the thief had started with the bottom drawer, and worked his way up. Had he started from the top, he would have had to push the drawer back in before moving to the next one down.

In this case, it is most likely that each drawer moving up from the bottom was probably pulled out slightly further than the one below it. Had the robber found what he was looking for in the first drawer, he would not have continued looking in the drawers above.

Yup !! Right answer

And BTW Welcome to Brainden.

[Guest]

Although since the name of the file had been chosen, there is a chance that the thief took it out but kept looking for more. So not totally conclusive. Still a good riddle.

Yeah, nice point didnt think about that !

[Guest]

It was a computer file and the computer was still in the drawer, that is why he could change the file name.

[Guest]

I see that this was already solved but I wanted to give my answer before reading the correct one

It was not taken. The thief would've started at the bottom if all the drawers were open other wise the above drawer would've blocked his view of the one beneath, it would've been pushed back in. (This is all assuming that he didn't just grab a bunch of random files and hope he got the right one)

[Guest]

But doesn't the riddle say something was taken? The theif may not have been targeting the file, or may have been looking for something else to take in addition to the file. He may have taken the file and a nice gold watch or other item of value in the top drawer for example, or could have passed the file, not recognizing its value, and then took the "nice gold watch." Who knows?

Other than that, the answer works - he didn't take the file as the other drawers were open, implying a bottom-up search.

[Guest]

But doesn't the riddle say something was taken? The theif may not have been targeting the file, or may have been looking for something else to take in addition to the file. He may have taken the file and a nice gold watch or other item of value in the top drawer for example, or could have passed the file, not recognizing its value, and then took the "nice gold watch." Who knows?

Other than that, the answer works - he didn't take the file as the other drawers were open, implying a bottom-up search.

The file was valuable and he was targeting it and he didnt have the time to take and the file and then keep looking ....

[Guest]

Private detective Talha found out that a thief had broken into Mr.Lewis' house. He knew who was the man who broke in to the house but he didnt have enough evidence to tell the police. He also knew what the man wanted, it was a top secret file about a case on which detective Talha was working. Mr. Talha's only concern was that file.

He asked Mr. Lewis where he kept it he said that he kept it in his bedroom in a table that had five drawers. The file was in the bottom most drawer. He also told him that he had left his bedroom for just about a minute and when he came back he figured out that someone had broken in and took something, he didnt check whether the file was there or not. But he told him that he had changed the name of the file in case such an incident would happen.

Mr. Talha went into Mr. Lewis' house and went straight into the bedroom he saw that all the five drawers were fully open and before he could do anything else, the police come in and told him to leave the crime scene .

However, he had figured out whether the file was taken or not.

Was the file taken or not ? and, How did Detective Talha find that out ?

BTW, this is my first riddle

no it wasn't taken , because it was thrown all over the place

[Guest]

You can't say the file was not taken, because:

It may be like this also:

The thief started from the top, not seeing his file, moved to next drawer (of course after closing the first one) then to next and finally to the last. But the file isn't in the last drawer too, so he thought the name may have been changed. So he thinks of taking all the files. so he begins from the last (now open) drawer, and then opens next drawer, takes the file and so-on upto the topmost drawer. hence the file is taken.

[reason for taking all file: he didn't have time to scan-through file-content to chech which is the real(required) file so he thought it was better to take all]

So it may have been anything we don't know.

[Guest]

I will like to add something:

Since the theif had no idea wheter the file was in the bottom drawer or the top, he had equal probability to begin search from either top or bottom. So, as I said in my PREVIOUS POST, the file may have been taken as well, Unless you specify explicitly that---1. The thief could never think that the file name can be changed, hence would never take files with other name-----or----he had no-more time than to search once per each drawer. (so that he couldn't manage to take all files after-discovering that the file-name have been changed)

Edited April 10, 2009 by the-genius

[Guest]

If all the drawers were FULLY open, then the thief didn't have anything to do with this. A thief does not systematically and neatly open drawers, he yanks them open and then proceeds. Therefore, the thief didn't open the drawers; rather, it was Mr. Lewis who opened them to check to see if they were missing.

[Guest]

The file wasn't taken. The thief just put a note in it saying "I will take the file!"