1.92. A man is dead in a room with a small pile of
pieces of wood and sawdust in one corner. (from “Coroner’s Inquest,” by
Marc Connelly; earlier(?) from How Come?)
1.92 answer: The man is a blind midget, the shortest one in the circus.
Another midget, jealous because he’s not as short, has been sawing small
pieces off of the first one’s cane every night, so that every day he thinks
he’s taller. Since his only income is from being a circus midget, he
decides to kill himself when he gets too tall.
1.92 variant answer: (slight) Instead of sawing pieces off of the
midget’s cane, someone has sawed the legs off of his bed. He wakes up,
stands up, and thinks he’s grown during the night.
1.92 variant answer: There were termites in his cane.
1.92a. Variant wording: If he had seen the sawdust, he would have lived.
(MJ)
1.92a answer: Same.
1.92b. Variant: A pile of sawdust, no net, a man dies.
1.92b answer: A midget is jealous of the clown who walks on stilts. He
saws partway through the stilts; the clown walks along and falls and dies
when they break. (from Peter R. Olpe)