This Riddle Can Only Be Solved by People Whose IQ Is 140 or Higher

• 2019-06-20
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A young detective by the name of Smith came across a peculiar murder case. The case involved 5 people who all knew each other. One of them was shot dead with a pistol. Unfortunately, the documents didn’t contain the names of either the victim or the murderer.

Smith carefully studied all the papers and managed to determine the names, thanks to a few important details. Today Bright Side invites you to test your logic. Can you find those clues and prove yourself a great investigator?

John

John is an amateur tennis player. The day after the crime occurred, he took part in a tournament, playing against a person who wasn’t connected with the case.

Jack

Jack moved to the city a year before the murder happened. He was born and raised on a small island, whose inhabitants are mostly fishermen. So Jack’s main dream in life is to own a fishing schooner.

Steve

Steve works as a model and is really fond of himself. So much so that, a few days before the murder, he began posing for Bill, who agreed to paint his full-length portrait.

Bill

Bill is a famous portrait painter. He says that he expects to finish Steve’s portrait in a week’s time.

Alex

Right after the murder occurred, Alex went to Antarctica as part of an expedition to study marine life. He is still at the South Pole, along with 20 other scientists.

In addition, the detective took note of the following important circumstances:

• A week before the crime occurred, the murderer broke his leg.
• Steve and Alex became acquainted about 6 months before the murder.
• Alex and the killer knew each other since childhood — they grew up in neighboring houses in a big city.

After much thought, Detective Smith managed to figure out the names of the killer and his victim. Can you do the same?

Flip the picture to see the answer.

So how did the detective arrive at his conclusions?

• Since John was playing tennis the day after the murder, he couldn’t have fired the fatal bullet. We know that the murderer broke his leg a week before the crime was committed, and there’s no way it could have healed so quickly.
• Alex cannot be the culprit because, in his childhood, he and the murderer used to live in neighboring houses.
• Steve is innocent because he only met Alex a few months before the crime. As we know, the killer knew Alex since childhood.

Therefore, the murder was committed by either Jack or Bill. It is safe to assume that Jack is innocent because he grew up on an island and couldn’t have known the culprit since childhood. This leaves us with Bill. Besides everything else, we know for a fact that he is still alive since he is currently finishing Steve’s portrait. So Bill must be the killer.

It remains to find out who was the victim of the crime. Detective Smith knows that Alex (who is currently in Antarctica), John (who played tennis the day after the murder), and Steve (who is still posing for Bill) are most definitely alive.

Hence, Bill murdered Jack.

Illustrations by Yekaterina Ragozina for BrightSide.me