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Due to a communication breakdown and some misunderstanding, a truck with four boxes (pictured) full of valuables was left unguarded and unlocked door for exactly 1 hour in front of the bank.

Each box weighed the same but the content in each was different.

Even though the passing thief had enough time to steal all four, he left the crate marked as "diamonds" untouched.

enter image description here

Can you quickly deduce why?

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    $\begingroup$ The answer is no. I cannot quickly deduce why. (that was easy) $\endgroup$
    – Ben Frankel
    Sep 17, 2015 at 0:46

5 Answers 5

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The box with diamonds was upside down, so that the label "NO17" looked like "LION". The thief did not want to tangle with a dangerous animal.

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    $\begingroup$ That is what I was looking for. That was quick. $\endgroup$
    – kanchirk
    Sep 14, 2015 at 19:48
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    $\begingroup$ I figured those labels were there for a reason. :D $\endgroup$
    – dennisdeems
    Sep 14, 2015 at 19:55
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    $\begingroup$ I dunno... if I were a thief, I would take the lion and use him to help me fight the pursuing police. $\endgroup$
    – Ian MacDonald
    Sep 14, 2015 at 20:16
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    $\begingroup$ A box big enough to hold a lion filled with gold or platinum (or probably even silver or diamonds) would be far too heavy for one thief to lift. For that matter, lions are pretty heavy too - did he happen to have a forklift? Plus you'd think a box with a live lion in it would also have air-holes, or it wouldn't be alive for very long, and lion pelts probably are probably worth a decent price on the black market... /overthinking $\endgroup$
    – Darrel Hoffman
    Sep 15, 2015 at 13:12
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    $\begingroup$ i'm surprised it is valid answer, if i had a choice, i would definitely go for lion. why do you need some old gold or silver rubbish if you can have a nice lion? $\endgroup$
    – user902383
    Sep 15, 2015 at 17:18
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I have a guess, though it may not be correct.

The other three are metals that can be melted down and effectively obscured as "stolen", while diamonds are useless if changed and will typically have identifying information laser-cut into them.

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    $\begingroup$ Logically that is a correct answer. I am looking for a simpler explanation. Definitely an Upvote from me. $\endgroup$
    – kanchirk
    Sep 14, 2015 at 19:40
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The density of diamonds is 1/5 the density of gold. So if the thief had stolen the box of gold and realized that it was full, he would know that it would require five times the volume of diamonds to weigh the same amount. Since the boxes were all roughly the same size, the thief easily determined that the diamonds were fakes.

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  • $\begingroup$ That is an interesting take on the answer. $\endgroup$
    – kanchirk
    Sep 14, 2015 at 22:12
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    $\begingroup$ Or the box containing the gold was only 1/5 full. $\endgroup$
    – dberm22
    Sep 15, 2015 at 16:08
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The boxes are stacked, and so if the thief sees the gold and platinum boxes in front, the diamonds are hidden from view. You can't see box 17 unless you moved the other boxes out of the way.

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Because there's no way anybody could have a box with that many diamonds in it and entrust it to a bank. Banks might keep precious metals but they don't usually keep diamonds.

Therefore the thief was afraid it had some kind of police tracking device.

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  • $\begingroup$ Not a bad idea, but wouldn't that logic apply to other boxes too? $\endgroup$
    – kanchirk
    Nov 3, 2015 at 14:00
  • $\begingroup$ Well, banks may keep precious metals - this is way more normal than keeping diamonds; therefore diamonds are suspicious. $\endgroup$
    – bgmCoder
    Nov 3, 2015 at 16:35

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