With thieves, I consort,
With the vilest, in short,
I’m quite at ease in depravity;
Yet all divines use me,
And savants can’t lose me,
For I am the center of gravity.
Who am I?
One evening there was a murder in a house where there lived a married couple with their 2 children - their son and daughter. One of these four people murdered one of the others.
One of the members of the family witnessed the crime.
The other one helped the murderer.
These are the things we know for sure:
1. The witness and the one who helped the murderer were not of the same gender.
2. The oldest person and the witness were not of the same gender.
3. The youngest person and the victim were not of the same gender.
4. The one who helped the murderer was older than the victim.
5. The father was the oldest member of the family.
6. The murderer was not the youngest member of the family.
Who was the murderer?
The mother was the murderer.
We know from fact number three that the youngest person wasn't the victim, and from the fourth fact we know the youngest person wasn't the helper and from fact number six the youngest person was not the killer either. Therefore, the youngest person can only have been the witness. If we make up a chart there are now three possible combinations:
Oldest person (father) H H M
Next to oldest (mother) V M H
Next to youngest (son) M VV
Youngest (daughter) W W W
(H = Helper ; V = Victim ; M = Murderer ; W = Witness)
We can work out from fact number five that the father was the oldest and from fact two that the youngest person must have been the daughter. Therefore the next to the youngest must have been the son and the next to the oldest, the mother!