ANSWER - January 2002

Profaning the Home Stone attracts the biggest fee. Qasim is not the profaner as someone has a bigger price on his head, and nor is Quintus for the same reason (Quintus is in third place at most as both the profaner and the murderer carry a higher fee). Suppose Amal of Schendi is the profaner. Then Parmenides must have the next lower fee (Qasim can't be in second place as Amal is a Merchant, not a Leather Worker), Quintus must come after him and Qasim in fourth place (he can't be in third place as he was last seen in Ko-ro-ba, not Port Kar). Quintus must be the outlaw sighted in Port Kar. Parmenides must be the murderer in order for the murderer to carry a higher price than Quintus. But then Quintus would be a Builder, and this leaves no caste for the fourth-placed Qasim.

So Amal is not the profaner. It must be Parmenides. The next outlaw down was hence sighted in Port Kar, so cannot be Qasim. It can't be Quintus either as the murderer has a bigger fee than him. Hence it is Amal.

Now the fourth-placed outlaw is not a Merchant (Amal is), a Leather Worker or a Warrior (neither of these carries the smallest reward), so he must be the Builder. This makes the third-placed outlaw the murderer, and hence the fourth-placed is Quintus and Qasim is the third. He was sighted in Ko-ro-ba. Two sightings are still unassigned: the man in Thentis doesnot carry the lowest fee, so he must carry the highest. This means that Parmenides was sighted in Thentis and Quintus in Tharna. Parmenides must be the Leather Worker as he has a bigger reward on him than Qasim, which means that Qasim was of the Warriors. Hence Quintus is the rapist and Amal is the traitor.

Take me back to the Puzzle Page