Taiwanese Puzzler Reconstructs US$6,600 in Shredded Cash

In Taiwan, such fiduciary fantasies may come true. Shredded dollars may be restitched, from particles to paybacks.

What happened to the shredded money in Taiwan?

Mr. Lin said he didn't mean to drop the Taiwanese equivalent of US$6,600 into an industrial shredder at his employer's plastics manufacturing facility. But the damage was done, and the bills became itty bitty bits of financial fragments.

Fortunately for Mr. Lin, a seasoned forensics scientist in Taipei, possessed an uncanny ability to unpuzzle puzzles and to put the pieces back together. A local law enforcement official put Mr. Lin in touch with Liu Hui-Fen, a scientific staffer in special investigations with Taiwan's Justice Ministry.

In the end, Liu Hui-Fen's 30-year career in forensic applications and her wealth of patience paid big dividends for Mr. Lin.

Liu Hui-Fen spent a full week affixing the mangled monetary morsels. When she finished, Mr. Lin was able to present the completed puzzles (200,000 in Taiwanese dollars) to a Taiwanese bank for replacement currency.

According to Taiwan's banking laws, paper money can be replaced, if at least three quarters of the original bill is present and recognizable.

Although this stymieing story ended fortuitously, at least for the mysterious Mr. Lin, several questions still remain.

Don't we all want to know?

First, why was Mr. Lin carrying such a big bundle of cash through the manufacturing factory in a plastic bag?

How many of those clever old-fashioned shredded-dollar-filled ballpoint pens might the Taiwanese Justice Ministry have created and sold, instead of reassembling Mr. Lin's shredded bills?

Whose money was shredded, anyway, in the Taiwanese factory?

Where was the amazingly clever puzzler Liu Hui-Fen during the Watergate years, when we could have used her mighty shredded document reassembly skills?

How much would Liu Hui-Fen charge for a house call?

You see, I just found a tattered ten-spot in the pocket of a pair of jeans, fresh out of the dryer. This is legal tender currency, of course, even though it has been laundered.

And my next-door neighbor is a puzzle whiz, but he seems to be a bit stuck on a particularly tricky 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle this week.

Besides, there's this old friend of ours, who sat on a wall and had a great fall. . . . and all the king's horses and all the king's men can't seem to put him back together again.

Paging Liu Hui-Fen!

Think you can reassemble the tattered, shattered and shredded American economy while you are at it?