The Price Board
Read the puzzle
Under a sign that reads HARDWARE SHOP, a price board lists four items with tags in SR: 7 costs 2 SR, 365 costs 6 SR, 41 costs 4 SR, and 2026 costs ? SR. How much does 2026 cost?
How much does 2026 cost?
What would you buy at a hardware shop for your front door?
8 SR
They sell door-number digits: 2 SR per digit, and 2026 has four.
How to solve it
The sign is the clue. A hardware shop sells the single metal digits people fix to a door to show their house number, so the price depends on how many digits you buy, not on how big the number is.
Step one: test the idea. 7 is one digit and costs 2 SR. 41 is two digits and costs 4 SR, and 365 is three digits and costs 6 SR. Each digit costs 2 SR.
Step two: 2026 has four digits: 2, 0, 2 and 6. Four digits at 2 SR each is 4 x 2 = 8 SR. The two 2s are two separate pieces, so both count.
The usual wrong answers come from treating the numbers as values. Digit sums fail: 3 + 6 + 5 = 14, not 6. Ratios fail too: 365 divided by 6 is not a whole number, and 7 divided by 2 is not the same ratio as 41 divided by 4. Answers like 10 (from 2 + 0 + 2 + 6) or 6 (counting the two 2s once) miss the rule.
Quick check: 1 digit = 2 SR, 2 digits = 4 SR, 3 digits = 6 SR, so 4 digits = 8 SR.
