I should take more care what I wish for. For sometimes, it comes true … most notably, if you have a really playful friend (which, in all honesty, is exactly what I (secretly) wished for, clearly without considering the consequences, notably the fact that I have to be prepared for surprises).

So. This evening, around 9 o’clock, the doorbell rings. I use the buzzer to open the door, but no one comes in. “Stupid kids” I think and return to my Mac. A few minutes later my flatmate returns. I tell him about the incident. He looks at me strangely and then suddenly suggests that someone might have left something in the letterbox.

“Come on!” I go, but he still goes to check. Some moments later I hear a shriek, and he returns, carrying a white box …

A white box, usually used to carry around money. With a lock (of course). But there’s no key (figures). And, stylishly enough, a message on top, with burned edges and all, exactly how you’d imagine a treasure hunt.

The message says:

Keep it secret, keep it safe.
More Information is to come.

What can we learn from that? Let’s see …

• The first line is a direct quote from Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. So it’s someone who knows those films pretty well – or someone who suspects that I know those films.
• The second line has a slight error – “Information” is capitalised. Since the rest of the text is not (title-)capitalised, this slip suggests a person having German as their native language (in which “Information” would be capitalised as a noun).
• The text is set in Zapfino, a font that comes pre-installed on Mac OS X, but not Windows. So the person is likely to be a Mac user.
• Hardly visible on the picture is the fact that the letters shine. So it is obviously not printed out using an ink-jet printer, but with a laser printer, probably even a colour laser printer. The person must have access to such a device.

I’d say that’s already a nice basis to track that certain person down.

Okay, I think I pretty much know who it is, anyway ^_^

Let’s see what happens next …

Update!

Woah! I completely overlooked the biggest clue of them all: The message is written in English!¹ Now, quite a lot people know that I have no problems with English, but there are (apart from the people from the English Department) only a few German speakers that in certain contexts switch to English to talk (or rather:) IM/twitter/mail with me.²

That narrows the suspects down to three people that use English instead of German with me. Two of them use Windows, respectively Linux. Which leaves only one using a Mac …