A senior policeman is interrogating three men who are training to become detectives. To test their skills in recognising a suspect, he shows the first man a picture for five seconds and then hides it. “This is your suspect, how would you recognise him?”
The first man answers: “That’s easy, we’ll catch him fast because he only has one eye!”
The policeman says: “Well…uh…that’s because the picture I showed is his side profile.”
Slightly flustered by this ridiculous response, he flashes the picture for five seconds at the second man and asks him: “This is your suspect, how would you recognise him?”
The second man smiles, flips his hair, and says: “Ha! He’d be too easy to catch because he only has one ear!”
The policeman angrily responds: “What’s the matter with you two? Of course only one eye and one ear are showing because it’s a picture of his side profile! Is that the best answer you can come up with?”
Extremely frustrated at this point, he shows the picture to the third man and in a very testy voice asks: “This is your suspect, how would you recognise him? Think hard before giving me a stupid answer.”
The third man looks at the picture intently for a moment and says: “The suspect wears contact lenses.”
The policeman is surprised and speechless because he doesn’t know himself if the suspect wears contacts or not.
“Well, that’s an interesting answer,” he replies. “Wait here for a few minutes while I check his file and I’ll get back to you on that.” He leaves the room and goes to his office, checks the suspect’s file on his computer, and comes back with a beaming smile on his face.
“Wow! I can’t believe it. It’s true! The suspect does, in fact, wear contact lenses. Good work! How were you able to make such an astute observation?”
“That’s easy,” the third man replied. “He can’t wear regular glasses because he only has one eye and one ear.”