THE BOTTLE PROBLEM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 125, 28 May 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE BOTTLE PROBLEM.

(Sent in by Molly Curtin, 34, Churcji Street, Tonspnby, age 10.) A man recently laid in a store of wine and stacked it in hin cellar. Upon investigation a few days later, however, he discovered that a number of bottles had been stolen. "This will never do," said the man to himself, and immediately set about preparing a trap by which to catch the thief. _ Exactly 28 bottles • • • • • • wero left, so he • *# arranged them along the sides of the box , • ,-q t « in the way shown # \ (fcO # * e in the first illustration. 0 0 "There are nine # # m * # „ bnttles along each. ■ " ' aide," he said, "now the thief can take no more bottles without the loss ibeiug immediately detected." Tho light-fingered person, however, was more clever than the owner of the wine imagined, and on two move occasions visited the cellar, taking eight more bottles of wine, yet always leaving the bottles go arranged that they counted nine on each side of the box. Can you discover how he performed this difficult task? • * • ••' • • •: 24 :• . 20 • . , • • • • n 0 o m « J I » » 0 ' * Tin! second illustration ehowa how the bottles were left after the thief's second visit, and the third picture shows the tirfungemunt of the bottles after the thief's third visit toi the wine cellar.