His chuckling was a crime. Why?
Big hint:
Someone died.
Did his chuckling cause the death?
Was silence required to avoid death?
Was it murder?
reply to Mahaloth:
Did his chuckling cause the death? Yes. Sort of.
Was silence required to avoid death? No
Was it murder? No
Was the death suicide?
Did the chuckling goad another into some sort of action causing the death?
His chuckling was a crime. Why?
No to all.
Was it him that died?
Did the death precede the chuckling?
No.
His chuckling was a crime. Why?
No.
Did he know the person who died?
Was the crime committed by another person?
Did he know the person who died? No
Was the crime committed by another person? No
His chuckling was a crime. Why?
I remember when I first read of this in Harper’s magazine years ago. It really stuck with me, but I never thought of it as a lateral thinking puzzle until recently.
A hint is to recall the nature of the lateral thinking puzzle in general. Puzzles are designed to point one way, while many times the truth is standing obviously just the other way if you would only look. A sneaky puzzle presenter of course wants you to look the wrong way, but must always be fair.
Had someone else heard him chuckle before?
If so, did they identify him?
No to all.
Did the chuckling cause him to perform another action that caused the death directly?
No.
Had he been specifically legally banned from chuckling for whatever reason?
No.
His chuckling was a crime. Why?
Listen folks, I don’t mean to keep blaring the same horn but… it is really not complicated.
There is this dude, a guy, an adult human male. He chuckles. Or if you prefers he guffaws. He goes “hee hee” or “ho ho” or something similar. Suffice to say there was cachinnation. It was his gleeful noise. And because of this there is a terrible horrible crime! There is DEATH DEATH DEATH!!!
And that’s all you need to know to solve this thing.
Did his chuckling cause an accident?
Was his chuckling interpreted as a signal?
Was anybody else involved in the crime?
Was the crime real, as opposed to one in a fictional portrayal (TV, book, etc)?