Bar of Gold

[Meatball]

What if your employee has to pay his rent with the gold on day 1?

YOUR BUSINESS GOES UNDER. THAT'S WHAT.

[Eilonnwy]

What if your employee has to pay his rent with the gold on day 1?

YOUR BUSINESS GOES UNDER. THAT'S WHAT.

I think my solution works best.

[Tiberius]

What if your employee has to pay his rent with the gold on day 1?

YOUR BUSINESS GOES UNDER. THAT'S WHAT.

Simple. Fire him, break off one bit of gold, give it to a sweatshop in China, and keep the rest yourself.

[Meatball]

Except for the fact that all along your "gold" bar was a painted lead bar and Gene Hackman is laughing all the way to the bank while you dodge chinese mafia assassins for the rest of your life.

[Dotard]

The rules also say nothing of just handing him the entire bar on day one to pre-pay the labor for the week. You have effectively paid him the same amount everyday, in advance.

Would you have called 'foul' on that answer? Would I be justified in calling you out for a 'tantrum'?

In your analogy there was no rule for only carrying one item in the boat each trip.

I stand by my contention of a disingenous puzzle.


It's like the 'puzzle' (I'd call it more of a 'riddle' as yours was) that only works orally.

"If you had twenty sick sheep and one died how many would be left?" When orally presented sounds like twenty six sheep. 19 would be the correct answer.

No tantrum. Just calling it the way I see it, as a trick question.

[Autumnlicious]

Agreed - there are so many ways this can be misrepresented or gamed.

[Tiberius]

The rules also say nothing of just handing him the entire bar on day one to pre-pay the labor for the week. You have effectively paid him the same amount everyday, in advance.

Would you have called 'foul' on that answer? Would I be justified in calling you out for a 'tantrum'?

Err...yes, because of this rule:

You must give them a piece of gold at the end of every day.

You are being deliberately awkward in my view. If you can't see how paying him in advance with one bar is completely at odds with a very specific rule, then I'm astounded. The problem would be non-existant if you could just hand him the full bar! This is lateral thinking; you have to come up with a straight-forward answer that fulfils the restrictions of the question. Technically, you could argue a solution where you sell the gold, wait until the gold drops in value, and re-buy 7 bars of gold, giving him one on each day (and no breaks either!). Unfortunately, the solution is neither simple, nor clever. It's more of a convenient way of getting around the gist of the question.

In your analogy there was no rule for only carrying one item in the boat each trip.

Can you read?

but the boat can only take him and one of the aforementioned items

I stand by my contention of a disingenous puzzle.

I stand by my contention that you are throwing a tantrum because you couldn't think laterally and solve it, and instead you have come up with two objections, both of which are covered by rules I had already set down.

The puzzle wasn't created by me, I simply copied it from another website. It's been around for years. You find it disingenuous, but nobody else does; they find it lateral.

[Dotard]

Can you read?

Oops. My bad. I did miss that.

Technically, you could argue a solution.....Unfortunately, the solution is neither simple, nor clever.

Oh I see. The source of your tantrum is the answer wasn't simple nor clever. That wasn't in the rules. "The answer must be simple and clever."

If you give the worker a piece of gold on day one that he must give back to you on day two, then you really didn't give him shit. You just had him hold it until the next day. If he is not free to do with the gold as he pleases then you didn't give him the gold.

Worker takes day one pay and buys a bag of pot.
Day two Adrian tells him, "Here is day two wage, but I need that day one gold back."
"Hell no, that's my gold, you gave that to me. It is of my contention requiring the worker to give back that which you have gave him the previous day negates the "you must GIVE him a piece everyday" rule because on day one you didn't GIVE him shit, you just had him hold it for a day.

How's that for lateral thinking? Would that fit in your pipe so ye may smoke it?

[leo-rcc]

WTF? You are just as well aware that this is a scenario that is just a mental exercise. Of course there is no rule set in stone that "One might only break a gold bar in 3 pieces" nor does anyone pay in gold bar anymore. Jeez, get a grip.

[Dotard]

Where would be the fun in that?