Fictional mystery • Not a real crimeThe Printmaker’s Portfolio: Where Did the Copper Plate Go?
Read closely. Follow the clues. Tell us what you think happened.
Solution available since November 6, 2026 at 7:00 pm CST.
Fictional deduction challenge. The Lantern Press is closing its print fair when a small copper demonstration plate disappears from the workshop. Four volunteers each left with a closed portfolio after picking up supplies. The exit scale was meant to track those supplies. The curator suspects it recorded something else.
The plate must be inside one portfolio. Use the desk receipts and scale readings to decide who carried it out.
The evidence.
- An inventory check established that exactly one item left the workshop without being issued: the copper plate, which weighs 180 grams. It fit inside each portfolio.
- The four empty portfolios each weighed exactly 400 grams. No one swapped portfolios. No objects already in a portfolio were removed.
- Each volunteer put exactly the supplies listed on their receipt in their portfolio. Nothing other than those supplies and the plate could have been added.
- The supply desk weighed each sealed packet: blotting paper weighed 90 grams, sample prints weighed 130 grams, and a mounting board weighed 160 grams.
- Receipt for Arden: one packet of blotting paper and one packet of sample prints. Exit weight: 620 grams.
- Receipt for Bram: one mounting board. Exit weight: 560 grams.
- Receipt for Cleo: one packet of blotting paper. Exit weight: 670 grams.
- Receipt for Dev: one packet of sample prints and one mounting board. Exit weight: 690 grams.
Reveal the solution — spoilers
Cleo carried the plate. For each volunteer, subtract the empty portfolio and the supplies on their receipt from the exit weight.
- Arden: 620 − (400 + 90 + 130) = 0 grams unaccounted for.
- Bram: 560 − (400 + 160) = 0 grams.
- Cleo: 670 − (400 + 90) = 180 grams.
- Dev: 690 − (400 + 130 + 160) = 0 grams.
The inventory rules out a different extra item. Cleo’s portfolio is the only one with an unexplained 180 grams, exactly the weight of the plate.
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The theory board.
Open reader theories — contains spoilers
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