Detective Training

A sergeant is interviewing three cadets who were training to become detectives. To test their skills in recognizing a suspect, he shows the first cadet a picture for 5 seconds and then hides it.

“This is your suspect, how would you recognize him?” The first cadet answers, “That’s easy, we’ll catch him fast because he only has one eye!” The sergeant 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 5 seconds at the second cadet and asks him, “This is your suspect, how would you recognize him?”

The second cadet smiles, 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 cadet and in a very testy voice asks, “This is your suspect, how would you recognize him?” He quickly adds, “Think hard before giving me a stupid answer.”

The cadet looks at the picture intently for a moment and says, “The suspect wears contact lenses.”

The seargent is surprised and speechless because he really doesn’t know himself if the suspect wears contacts or not.

“Well, that’s an interesting answer. 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 in 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 cadet replied. “He can’t wear regular glasses because he only has one eye and one ear.”