AN IMPOSSIBLE ALIBI / 2 MINUTES
The clock that never rang
At nine, a museum key vanished. Three visitors gave statements. One statement contradicts a fact in the maintenance log. Can you find it?
The evidence
- A power cut lasted from 8:57 until 9:06 that evening.
- The hall's electric clock can chime only with mains power. It has no battery or mechanical backup.
- All three visitors refer to that same hall clock and that same evening.
Iris: ‘I waited in the courtyard at nine.’
Tomas: ‘I heard the hall clock chime nine during the power cut.’
Mei: ‘I used my torch to read the guest book.’
Whose statement cannot be true?
Iris · Tomas · Mei
A little hint
Compare the outage times with the clock's power source.
Reveal the reasoning
Tomas
Tomas's statement is impossible. Nine falls inside the power cut, and this clock cannot chime without mains power. Nothing in the clues contradicts Iris or Mei. This identifies a false statement; it does not prove who took the key.
All the information you need is in the clues. A useful way to solve this case is to test each possible answer against every fact, instead of choosing the first answer that feels plausible.
Try today's code-breaking puzzle ↗