A meeting of world famous stamp collectors is held in the study of one avid collector’s luxurious home. During the meeting, the host brings out a unique and extremely valuable stamp and allows it to be passed amongst the guests. Before he does so, however, he locks the doors to the study so that no one can leave.
At the end of the meeting, the stamp is nowhere to be found. The host calls the police. The police do a thorough search of the study and the occupants but don’t find the stamp anywhere.
Several weeks later, one of the stamp collectors is arrested for selling the stamp on the black market. How did he do it?
Was the stamp in the room at the time the police searched it?
(And the Hitchcock question was relevant- if you had gotten it from the short story, I wouldv’e recused myself as I read the answer instead of deducing it.)