The Guilty One

Years ago, I was part of a college and career group at a church in Kitchener, Ontario. Somehow I was placed on a committee that planned social events on Saturday nights. I have always been one to think of innovative ideas and this one certainly was.

Kitchener has Victoria Park close to the downtown. In the middle, there was a pavilion. I put a doll in it and marked it so it looked like a murder had been committed. Then I spread clues all over a certain area within the park.

When everybody arrived, I stated that a murder had occurred in the park. I took them to the scene of the crime and mentioned that there were clues within the boundaries I had determined before. Their job was to gather all of the information and when we went back to somebody’s home for snacks, they would form groups to see if they could figure out who did it.

Like horses out of a starting gate, they took off scampering like water bugs in every direction. Nobody was to remove any of the evidence. They wrote down what they saw on pieces of paper.

After half an hour of investigation, we retired for our fellowship, which usually meant delicious light refreshments. They formed into groups and were given half an hour to come up with the guilty person. They would then be given the opportunity to present their evidence and name their suspect.

I wandered from group to group. The discussion was lively. Each clue was examined carefully and hypotheses were drawn up. Sometimes in a group there were heated arguments. Eventually, each group was confident that it had solved the case.

Then the presentations started. I actually gave prizes for the most detailed, the most eloquent and the funniest. One by one they went through their information and at the end each group stated with great certainty that one of the members of our group had committed the crime.

When the final presentation was over, they bayed at me like hounds chasing a fox to reveal the one who was guilty. Here is what they learned.

First, the clues that they had collected were random items I had selected from my apartment. I had no idea of how they were connected.

Second, they had collected items in the park that I had not planted; yet they included them in their summations.

Third, I had no idea who the guilty party was.

They were not too pleased. Someone asked me, “Why did you have us run around wasting our time?”

I replied, “I didn’t waste your time. What you learned was that your imagination is very strong. It can take circumstantial evidence that has no relevance to each other, put it together and be certain that somebody is guilty of a crime he didn’t commit. In fact, I never even said that one person in the group committed the crime, yet each group named somebody here tonight. Doesn’t that tell you something?”

Suddenly, everybody’s face became quite sober. The lesson had been learned. All I can say is that I am glad I invented the game, because I know I would have done the same thing.