I know which one of you did it… but you have to be honest with me. Who ate my doughnut?” Jonathan shouts at the top of his voice.

“That is no way to talk to your guests, Jon,” Alfred Bates, famous detective, tells his son.

“But dad! They ate my doughnut!” Jonathan argues.

“Correction!” Bates cuts his son short. “You think that one of them did.”

“Whatever. I am sure that there were two in the box and now there is just one,” Jonathan pleads his case. “They don’t know me. I will find out who did it and then…”

“And then what will you do?” Bates poses a logical question.

“I will punish that person!” Jon declares.

“And how do you intend to deduce the doughnut eater?” Bates continues with his questions.

“There is no need to deduce. I know James did it,” Replies a confident Jon. “He is fat, always eating and doesn’t listen to me.”

“But he has a plaster on his right hand,” Bates clears the first suspect. “Therefore, he couldn’t eat by himself. His sister Jill made him eat the two doughnuts he had.”

“Brandon did it then…” Jon shifts the blame to his other guest. “He was eyeing the doughnuts from the moment I came home with them.”

“He couldn’t have done it either,” Bates clears suspect number 2. “He was watching TV in the other room with me.”

“Jill could have done…”

“Nope,” Bates clears another suspect. “She was helping her brother eat in the living room, remember!”

“Ian?”

“He arrived late,” Bates says as he clears the final suspect.

“Then who did it?” Jon questions his detective dad.

“You did it, my son,” Bates points the finger at the culprit.

“I didn’t eat an extra doughnut, I am sure. I had two like the rest of them,” Jon says as he pleads innocent.

“How many doughnuts did you buy?” Bates begins his explanation with a question.

“A dozen only,” Jon tells his father.

“How many did you eat before you came home?” Bates asks another question.

“Just one,” Jon discloses.

“And two doughnuts are what all the kids including you had when the box was opened, right?” Bates tries to confirm with his son.

“Right!” Jon replies in affirmative.

“That makes 11 doughnuts,” Bates concludes. “You are the only one who had three doughnuts, which means you ate the extra one.”

“But I don’t remember eating three doughnuts!” Jonathan continues to plead not guilty.

“No one remembers how many doughnuts they have eaten when there are a dozen of them to choose from,” Bates explains the logic behind Jon’s memory loss.

“So what should I do now?” Jon asks his father.

“Offer the remaining doughnut to a friend and apologise to the rest for being rude,” Bates says as he advices Jon.“I guess three doughnuts are too much,” Jon says. “I am offering the last one to the person who solved the case.”

“Wow… a reward,” Bates exclaims. “I am flattered. Thank you son!”

“Thank you dad, for making me realise my mistake!” Jon concludes.