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An Iranian merchant has immigrated to the USA and opens his fruit store there.

He labels his fruits in both Persian and English with the costs in dollars:

سیب (Apple): 33$ per kilo
پرتقال (Orange): 67$ per kilo
کیوی (Kiwifruit): 42$ per kilo

What's the price of موز (Banana) per kilo?

This is an original puzzle

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    $\begingroup$ it's one banana. how much could it cost? $\endgroup$
    – juicifer
    Commented Jul 11 at 18:40
  • $\begingroup$ He has a lot of fruits. He has, say, 100 kilograms of apples, 200 kg of oranges, and 50 kg of bananas. If I say it in singular it doesn't necessarily mean he has only one of each! $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 11 at 18:43
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    $\begingroup$ @EtackSxchange juicifer is referring to a popular scene from Arrested Development. $\endgroup$
    – F1Krazy
    Commented Jul 11 at 18:45
  • $\begingroup$ @juicifer I'm sorry for my wrong interpretation $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 11 at 18:49

1 Answer 1

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And the price for bananas is ...

$31 per kilo

... because ...

Without knowing anything about Persian, I still can move the cursor over these words and discover how they split into characters.

Fruit names with every other letter highlighted

From there the formula becomes pretty obvious:
price = (number of letters) x 10 + (number of dots).

So the word for banana having 3 letters and 1 dot, the price is $31.

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    $\begingroup$ This is one of those cases where it might even be easier to see the answer if you don't speak the language! Btw I don't think the dots are diacritical marks here, if I understand correctly they're part of the letter just like the dot above the English j. (Never learned Persian but that's my understanding.) $\endgroup$
    – Jafe
    Commented Jul 12 at 6:38
  • $\begingroup$ I checked and yes, you are probably right about the dots. I removed the remark. $\endgroup$
    – Florian F
    Commented Jul 12 at 8:49
  • $\begingroup$ @FlorianF Excellent! $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 12 at 9:32

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