Case 38 · code-breaking / spatial text · Medium · About 6–10 minutes
A paper weaver has filled a small square with an instruction. Reading its rows produces almost a word, then fragments. The maker’s route, however, is written clearly on the back.
The square below is the complete puzzle. The accompanying illustration is decorative, and no particular thread, color, or object in it needs to be interpreted.
Start at the upper-left letter. Read that cell, then move right one cell at a time. If the next step would leave the square or enter a cell already read, turn clockwise and continue. Clockwise direction changes are right → down → left → up → right.
Read every cell exactly once and stop after sixteen letters. Do not skip cells, move diagonally, or turn before an obstacle requires it.
| L | O | O | K |
| E | V | A | U |
| H | E | S | N |
| T | R | E | D |
For accessible transcription, the rows from top to bottom are LOOK / EVAU / HESN / TRED. Each slash marks a new row, not a character.
Separate the recovered message into words of lengths 4, 5, 3, 4. What instruction does the weaver give?
Hint 1 - reveal when you want a nudge
The first turn occurs after K at the top-right corner. Continue downward through U, N, and D.
Hint 2 - reveal when you want a nudge
The outer boundary reads LOOKUNDERTHE. Four unread cells remain in a smaller central square; keep the same turning rule.
Reveal the solution and explanation
The instruction is LOOK UNDER THE VASE.
The top row gives LOOK. The right edge contributes UND. The bottom row, now read from right to left without repeating its corner, contributes ERT. The left edge upward contributes HE. Those twelve perimeter cells therefore give LOOKUNDERTHE.
From the E at row 2, column 1, another upward step would revisit the already read top-left cell. Turn right into the center. The remaining path visits V at row 2, column 2; A at row 2, column 3; S at row 3, column 3; and E at row 3, column 2. That completes VASE.
The supplied lengths split the sixteen letters unambiguously into four words. Every grid cell occurs once in the account above, with no duplicated corner letters. The movement is uniquely determined because a turn is permitted only when the current forward step is blocked by the boundary or prior path.
This is a route through printed characters, so the instruction remains available if the illustration is omitted or the puzzle is read aloud using row-and-column coordinates. Finding a vase in the artwork is neither necessary nor a substitute for decoding the square.
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