The Turtle Soup Game

[Randy Jackson]

Many years ago, I taught folklore at a summer camp(we had new campers each week of different ages, from 8-15). At the time, the folklore class was pretty unstructured, so I could more or less do as I pleased. Sometimes I told ghost stories, sometimes sports games, sometimes mythology, whatever I thought might be entertaining to the kids. One of the most useful things we did was two minute mysteries, as they allowed me to be lazy.

The basic rules are as follows: a scenario is laid before the people playing, and you're allowed to ask as many yes/no questions as you like to determine the answer. The answer to the question may also be 'Irrelevant' if it has no bearing on the solution.

I request the following :

* One question per post

* If you already know the answer, please keep it to yourself and let others play. Same with Googling the answer.

Once the scenario is solved, the person who solves it gets to post a new one OR they can pass it back to someone else who's interested (FYI, I'm happy to post more).

So here's the first scenario:

A man is found dead, surrounded by 52 bicycles. What happened?

[Randy Jackson]

Yes

Peter Wrexham said:

Did he learn something at the restaurant that he'd previously not known?

[Peter Wrexham]

A man walks into a restaurant. He orders and eats a bowl of Turtle Soup, then goes home and commits suicide.

Did he learn something about the recipe for the soup?

[JD DeLuzio]

Had he ever eaten Turtle Soup before?

[Randy Jackson]

Yes

Peter Wrexham said:

A man walks into a restaurant. He orders and eats a bowl of Turtle Soup, then goes home and commits suicide.

Did he learn something about the recipe for the soup?

[Randy Jackson]

Hmm. .. Yes

JD DeLuzio said:

Had he ever eaten Turtle Soup before?

[Peter Wrexham]

Is it important that he ate Turtle Soup (as opposed to any other sort of soup)?

[Randy Jackson]

In this instance, yes. I have seen this puzzle with a different kind of soup, but the outcome is the same. 

Peter Wrexham said:

Is it important that he ate Turtle Soup (as opposed to any other sort of soup)?

[Peter Wrexham]

I very much doubt that this is the solution, but it does fit...

There are recipes for Mock Turtle Soup that involve boiling a calf's head.  The man in the puzzle had once made such a soup, and served it to a friend.  Unfortunately, the calf was infected with BSE, as a result of which the friend caught variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and died.  When the man ordered Turtle Soup at the restaurant, he discovered that the non-Mock version of the soup is actually made with turtle meat rather than beef.  He realised that, if he'd made his soup that way, his friend would still be alive.  Overcome with guilt, he committed suicide.

Points for ingenuity, at least?

[Randy Jackson]

Creative, but no. 

Peter Wrexham said:

I very much doubt that this is the solution, but it does fit...

There are recipes for Mock Turtle Soup that involve boiling a calf's head.  The man in the puzzle had once made such a soup, and served it to a friend.  Unfortunately, the calf was infected with BSE, as a result of which the friend caught variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and died.  When the man ordered Turtle Soup at the restaurant, he discovered that the non-Mock version of the soup is actually made with turtle meat rather than beef.  He realised that, if he'd made his soup that way, his friend would still be alive.  Overcome with guilt, he committed suicide.

Points for ingenuity, at least?

[Peter Wrexham]

Does he commit suicide because he has feelings of guilt?

[Randy Jackson]

Yes

Peter Wrexham said:

Does he commit suicide because he has feelings of guilt?

[Peter Wrexham]

Is the soup made from an endangered species of turtle?