Ken's blog

“Are you telling me that another uncle has passed away, Jill!!” exclaimed Jack, taking another sip of a hot chocolate while sitting at a café table at Chez Pierre’s, “how many uncles do you have??”

“Well, Jack, I do have quite a number of them, ten on either side of my prolific rural families. Uncle Ulysses, the business magnate, who was lost while exploring ancient Inca tunnels in the Andes, was a favorite of mine. He was quite fond of solving riddles,” said Jill with a reminiscing fond smile.

“So uncle Ulysses left you a mansion and lands way out in the countryside,” said Jack, fascinated.

“Yes, it will be a fine hideaway for us. I’m planning to check it out this weekend, coming along?”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” said Jack.

After a long trip deep into the interior, inspecting the estate lands, getting to know the major domo, staff, and exploring the many rooms in the large mansion, they wound up in uncle Ulysses’ office admiring a large painting of general Simon Bolivar, uncle Ulysses’ idol.

“Jill, do you see that curly Gothic decoration below the painting,” said Jack. pointing.

“I see it, the curlicues seem to end up in knob that looks like a button,” said Jill, pensively.

Soon they were eagerly pushing on the knob, but only when Jack pressed and rotated the Gothic decoration did the painting suddenly swing aside with a swoosh, exposing a modern electronic wall safe.

They opened a golden envelope with “Jill” written on it in stylish handwriting that was glued to the back of the painting of general Simon Bolivar, which read:

“My dearest niece, If you read this, I have gone missing and will not return. The valuables of your inheritance are contained in this safe. To safeguard against others opening it, in addition to the fingerprint screen, you’ll need to solve the following simple riddle to arrive at the six digit combination.

Riddle: ‘Two numbers are amicable and their sum is 504, the divisors of the one adding up to the other and vice versa.’

I’m sure you will make good use of your new estate and the fortune contained in the safe.

Your loving uncle,

Ulysses.

P.S. The safe will lock up after two incorrect code attempts, but as you are my clever riddle-solving niece, I’m sure this won’t be a problem.”

“Nice uncle,” said Jack, “I’m greatly impressed.”

“As you’re the student of number theory, Jack, you open it,” said Jill firmly.

“No problem, Jill, place your finger in the slot and we’ll have the safe open in a jiffy. I like this place,” laughed Jack, pulling out a yellow notepad and an India ink pen from his bag.

So what would you say is the combination to the safe?