It is a good way to start the day with a story, but within it a problem to be solved. Do you have the patience to do this and solve it or do you pass over it as it isn't that important?
Have a read and see what you think.
"I don't know how to tell you this, but, um, the safe has been robbed. The diamonds are gone." "What!?" The police chief shouted. "You mean the safe that you've been guarding carefully?" "That's the one." "But we checked every single space in the building in which a human being could possibly hide, it was totally empty. And we had the entire building completely surrounded, and had every possible entrance monitored. So surely we know who did it right? Please tell me we finally caught this guy!" "Not exactly. By which I mean, no. But we do have it narrowed down to three suspects this time. We tracked the entrance and exit of every person throughout the day, mostly customers of the bank on the first floor, not realizing we had closed it down for the day. Only three people were in the building at the time the safe was robbed. All of them entered separately on foot." "Wait, how do you know when the safe was robbed?" the chief asked. "Well, you know that one car we told you about that was already sitting empty in the parking garage under the building the night before? The one that mysteriously wasn't registered to anyone? Well, all of a sudden it came screaming out of the garage. We probably should have had it towed the night before, huh? Anyway, we all took off after it, but when we finally caught up to it, it was on the side of the road with no one in it. But the felt bag that held the diamonds was under one of the seats." "It didn't still have the diamonds in it by any chance, did it?" "Um, no chief. We all just stood there for a minute, when it suddenly occurred to us that every single one of us left our posts to chase the mystery car, so we all raced back to the building only to find that it was empty. So we're not sure which, if any, of the three suspects was still there when the car took off." "Wow. All that training has really paid off." "Thanks, chief. So anyway, it's not entirely clear who was involved. But we do know that there are only those three possible suspects. We tracked each one of them down, but none of them had the diamonds on them. They're each in an interrogation room now - Chris Barns, Evan Garrison, and Jimmy Jones. All three of them have at least minor criminal records, and all three are known to be pretty good with a safe." "Great. So it could be all of them, or any one of them. What else do we know about them?" the chief asked. "Well, Chris swore he was going straight several years ago, and he hasn't been suspected of anything since. Although, he has sworn he was going straight several times throughout his criminal career. Evan is known to be a pretty smooth thief, but it's also well known that he's superstitious and refuses to do any job unless his mentor Chris is involved. And then there's Jimmy. He's the best safe-cracker in the business, an absolute legend. People say that, being blind, he has super hearing, so he can hear every movement in the mechanisms of a safe with absolute clarity and precision. He definitely would have been able to get to the diamonds the fastest. But again, either of the other two would also have been able to crack that safe. I don't even know where to start!" The chief thought for a moment and said, "Well if everything you've said is true, then I know one of these guys who is definitely guilty. Let's question him and see if we can get him to spill whether either of the other two were involved." Who is guilty, and how does the chief know?" Answer tomorrow.
It is fun to have something to challenge our minds any day but especially on a Monday!
So how do we handle a mystery? There will be those who are constantly annoyed by them and need an answer as soon as. They can get edgy the longer the mystery remains.
There are those who are quite happy to live with mystery and they simply don't get vexed by issues which require solving. You know the sort of folk I mean, a nice cup of tea sorts out everything and tomorrow is a new day.
There are those who will look things up, research, constantly tweaking the information. What if this occurred or that isn't a fact and so on.
Strong critical thinkers demonstrate the following characteristics:
inquisitiveness with regard to a wide range of issues
concern to become and remain well-informed
attentive to opportunities to use critical thinking
self-confidence in one’s own abilities to reason
open-mindedness regarding divergent world views
flexibility in considering alternatives and opinions
alertness to likely future events in order to anticipate their consequences
understanding of the opinions of other people
fair-mindedness in appraising reasoning
honesty in facing one’s own biases, prejudices, stereotypes, or egocentric tendencies
prudence in suspending, making or altering judgments
willingness to reconsider and revise views where honest reflection suggests that change is warranted
This is all rather challenging for an Eastertide Monday but so important to allow us to be human, but also to be critical thinkers, mystery solvers and hands up we just don't know, but we certainly have faith in this and experience it for ourselves.
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