masterwordsmith-unplugged

Dear readers,

Here's a riddle from my former colleague...A prize for the first person who can get the correct answer within 24 hours :-).

Please post your solution in the comment page. Thanks and have fun!!!

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A goldsmith has a consignment of 1000 pound of gold dust in 100 bags each weighing 10 pounds.

He has 10 employees (which we will numbered them as 1,2,3,...10). He asks each employee to take back 10 bags home and bring them back tomorrow.

One particular employee is a crook. He scooped out exactly one pound of gold dust from each of his ten bags (all his bags are 9 pounds each).

The employer has a very big weighing machine with the scale covered.

How can he use this weighing machine once ONLY (i.e. one reading from the scale) to catch the crook?

That is, once the cover is removed, you have to identify the crook from that reading on the scale.