Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask Puzzle 012: Sharing the Burden Hints and Answer

Puzzle 012 is Sharing the Burden, a 35-picarat Arrange puzzle that Pascal, the clerk at the front desk of the Dromedary hotel, gives you in the Dromedary Lobby in Chapter 1. Two porters have to carry six bags, labelled A to F, in a single trip, and neither can take more than his limit. If you're reaching for pencil and paper, don't: the question never tells you what the bags weigh, so the game expects you to try a split, ring the bell and watch what the porters do. The hints below open one at a time, and the answer stays hidden until you choose to show it.

Video: Sharing the Burden solved. It shows the answer, so skip it if you only want the hints.

This page covers story Puzzle 012 in Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask on Nintendo 3DS, using the North American text, with pictures rebuilt from the game's own art. The UK English version has the same name, the same bags and the same answer, but measures the weights in kilograms. If you're after Sharing the Burden 2, Daily Puzzle 012 or Puzzle 12 from another Layton game, see Wrong Puzzle 012? below.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask Puzzle 012 Sharing the Burden: two porters with empty hands in the hotel on the top screen, and on the Touch Screen a shelf of six bags labelled A to F, two empty porter columns and a bell — Illustration of the puzzle as it starts, rebuilt from the game's art: the porters on the top screen, the bags, the two piles and the bell on the Touch Screen.

What Puzzle 012 is

Puzzle 012 at a glance
Name	Sharing the Burden (the same in the US and UK English versions)
Type	Arrange (drag the bags onto the porters, then ring the bell)
Picarats	35
Location	Dromedary Lobby, inside the Dromedary hotel, Monte d'Or
Chapter	Chapter 1
When	When you check in at the hotel
Given by	Pascal, the hotel clerk
Mandatory?	Yes: check-in waits until it's solved (see below)
Hints	Three hints and a Super Hint
Previous / next puzzle	011 Backstage Blunder (City Monument) / 013 Ancient Arti-facts (Classroom, Chapter 2)

The question says two porters must carry six bags in one trip. The bags are labelled A to F, from the lightest to the heaviest, and no bag weighs more than 10 pounds. All six together come to 40 pounds or less, and each porter can carry up to 20 pounds. You pile the bags into the porters' hands and ring the bell when you're ready.

The Puzzle 012 Touch Screen with the left and right porter columns outlined, the bell circled, and a key listing bags A (lightest) to F (heaviest), each bag 10 pounds or less and each porter 20 pounds at most — Illustration of the Touch Screen: the bag shelf, a column for each porter and the bell.

How the controls work

Drag a bag from the shelf on the left into one of the two orange columns. Each column is one porter's pile.
Ring the bell on the right to send the bags to the porters. The bell only works once all six bags are on a pile, so you can't test a porter with only some of the bags.
Watch the top screen. The bags drop into the porters' arms. A porter whose load is too heavy buckles, and a "Too bad" message appears before you get the Touch Screen back.

Pounds or kilograms?

The North American text uses pounds. The UK text uses kilograms with the same numbers, so each bag is 10 kg or less, the six come to 40 kg or less, and each porter can carry 20 kg. It also words a few lines differently: the bags are "labelled", the porters have to "carry it all in one go", and you "pile it all up in their hands and then ring the bell". The puzzle name, the bags and the answer are the same in the US and UK English versions.

Puzzle 012 names by language
Version	Puzzle name
English (North America)	Sharing the Burden
English (UK)	Sharing the Burden
Japanese	2人のポーター (Futari no pōtā, "the two porters"); the North American release labels it 二人のポーター１

Wrong Puzzle 012?

Puzzle 080, Sharing the Burden 2, is the sequel. It's also a porter puzzle in the Dromedary Lobby from Pascal, but it comes in Chapter 5 and is worth 30 picarats. If your game is much further along, that's the one you're looking at.
Daily Puzzle 012 in Miracle Mask is a different puzzle: Tile 02 in the North American version, Tetraton 02 in the UK version. It has nothing to do with porters.
Puzzle 012 in another Layton game is a different puzzle. If your Touch Screen doesn't show six lettered bags and a bell, you're in the wrong game.
Puzzle 011, Backstage Blunder, is Juggles the clown's puzzle at the City Monument just before this one, and Puzzle 013, Ancient Arti-facts, is the first puzzle of Chapter 2.

Where to find Pascal

Solving Puzzle 011 opens the way to the hotel, and the goal becomes "Head for the Hotel!" Walk into the Dromedary and Layton says, "Let's go ahead and check with the gentleman at the front desk." The goal changes to "Check In at Reception!" Pascal is at the front desk in the lobby. Talk to him to check in.

The Dromedary Lobby in Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask with Pascal's spot at the front desk marked in teal, and four hint coin spots numbered 1 to 4 — Illustration of the Dromedary Lobby, rebuilt from the game's art: Pascal's spot, and the four hint coins numbered as in the list below.

There are four hint coins in the lobby, all in the normal view, because the lobby has no zoomed-in view.

High on the right-hand wall, by the upper windows.
The vase of flowers on the coffee table in front of you.
The framed painting on the back wall.
The chandelier hanging left of the central pillars.

Why you can't solve it on paper

The question gives you the order of the bags and three limits, but no weights. That's not enough to work out the split by reasoning alone. The game knows the weights, though, and it shows you whenever a porter has too much: he buckles. So the puzzle works like a balance scale. Try a split, ring the bell, see who struggles and adjust. The hints follow exactly that route, starting with a test you're meant to fail.

What happens when a porter buckles

Buckling isn't the end of the puzzle. When the loads aren't right the bags drop into the porters' arms, any porter carrying more than 20 pounds plays a buckling animation, and a "Too bad" message appears on the top screen. The porters then stand up straight again with empty hands, and you can rearrange the bags and ring the bell again. It counts as a failed attempt, but you can try again straight away, and the Super Hint tells you not to worry about buckling.

Hints, one at a time

These follow the game's own hints, in the same order, with a little more explanation. Open only the next one you need. In the game, Hints 1 to 3 cost one hint coin each and the Super Hint costs two.

Hint 1: test the lightest bags

Find out how much one porter can handle. The game suggests putting the four lightest bags, A, B, C and D, on one porter and seeing whether he can carry them. Put E and F on the other porter so the bell works, then ring. If he buckles, then four bags are too many for one porter, because even the four lightest are over his limit.

Hint 2: how many bags each

If four bags are too many, each porter has to carry exactly three. Next, keep the two heaviest bags apart: the game says to give F to one porter and E to the other. Then the question is which other bags go with each of them.

Hint 3: the two lightest bags

Balance the heavy bags with the light ones. The game's hint is to give the lightest bag, A, to the porter with F, and the second lightest, B, to the porter with E. That leaves C and D, one for each porter.

Super Hint: when someone buckles

Don't worry if a porter buckles. Pick one way to hand out C and D and ring the bell. If someone buckles, the game says to swap C and D and try again.

Answer and full solution

The answer below gives the split, the hidden weights and a picture of the solved puzzle. Open it when you're ready.

Show the answer

Give one porter bags A, C and F, and the other porter bags B, D and E, then ring the bell. It doesn't matter which porter gets which group, or what order the bags are stacked in. Both porters hold their loads, and the game answers: "Correct! A luggage crisis has been averted."

Sharing the Burden solved: the left porter holding bags F, A and C and the right porter holding bags E, B and D on the top screen, with the same piles on the Touch Screen — Illustration of the answer: A, C and F on one porter, B, D and E on the other.

The winning split, with the hidden weights
Porter	Bags	Hidden weights	Total
Porter with F	A, C, F	4 + 6 + 10	20 lbs
Porter with E	B, D, E	5 + 7 + 8	20 lbs

The game never shows these weights. Behind the scenes the bags weigh 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 pounds, from A to F, and the bell only succeeds when both porters carry exactly 20. With those weights, A, C and F against B, D and E is the only split that works.

Step by step:

Test the four lightest. Put A, B, C and D on one porter and E and F on the other, and ring. The first porter buckles (that load is 22 pounds), so each porter needs exactly three bags.
Split up E and F. Put F on one porter and E on the other.
Add the light bags. A goes with F and B goes with E.
Try C and D. If you give D to the porter with F and C to the porter with E, the porter with F buckles: his load is 21 pounds and the other is 19.
Swap C and D and ring again. Now it's A, C and F against B, D and E, 20 pounds each, and both porters hold steady.

The near miss in Puzzle 012: the left porter buckling under bags F, D and A while a Too bad message appears on the top screen, with piles F, D, A and E, C, B on the Touch Screen — Illustration of the near miss: with D and C the wrong way round, the porter with F buckles.

If your answer keeps failing:

The bell doesn't respond. All six bags have to be on the porters first. Check that the shelf is empty.
The porter with F buckles. He has D instead of C. Swap C and D.
A different porter buckles. Start again from the hints: three bags each, F and E apart, A with F and B with E, then one of C and D each.
One porter has four bags. Even the four lightest are too heavy, so move one across.

Picarats, hints and hint coins

Sharing the Burden is worth 35 picarats. Wrong answers usually lower a puzzle's picarats, but all three of this puzzle's values are 35, so a buckle shouldn't cost you anything.

Hints cost hint coins, not picarats: one coin each for the first three hints and two for the Super Hint, five in total. The four coins in the Dromedary Lobby cover Hints 1 to 3 but not the Super Hint, so you need one more coin from earlier, or you can use the free hints on this page.

Puzzle 011, check-in and missing it

You'll always reach this puzzle after Puzzle 011, because solving Backstage Blunder is what opens the way to the hotel.

You can't skip Sharing the Burden. If you quit it, talking to Pascal again just offers the puzzle again, and the goal stays "Check In at Reception!" until you solve it, so you can't miss it. Solving it opens Layton's Room, the next place in the story, and Pascal tells you which room you're in: room 502.

Pascal returns in Chapter 5 with Puzzle 080, Sharing the Burden 2, another porter puzzle in the same lobby, worth 30 picarats.

Versions and systems

Nintendo 3DS, 3DS XL, 2DS and New 3DS: no difference. It's a touch-screen puzzle with no motion controls.
US and UK English versions: the same name, bags and answer. The UK text uses kilograms instead of pounds, with the same numbers, and words some lines differently.
Miracle Mask Plus: the Japanese re-release. This puzzle appears to be unchanged.
Other systems: Miracle Mask is a 3DS game. There's no Switch, mobile or PC version as of October 2026.

The scene around the puzzle

Pascal greets you with "Greetings. Do you have a reservation?" At first he can't find anything under Layton's name and says the hotel is fully booked. Then he finds it: as guests of the owners, Layton's party are at the hotel's service, and he goes to get their keys. Emmy asks, "So...do the Ledores own this hotel?" Layton replies, "That is news to me," and says he can see how Henry would enjoy the classic formality of the place. Once Layton has signed in, Pascal offers "a welcome puzzle, compliments of the house."

If you quit, Pascal says, "Oh dear. I see my puzzle was not to your liking." When you solve it, he says, "Well done, sir! Well done indeed! We have you in room 502. Enjoy your stay." Emmy wonders whether every guest gets a free puzzle or just the preferred ones. Talk to Pascal again afterwards and he boasts, "It's impossible to get lost on your way to the Dromedary!"

FAQ

Where is the answer to Puzzle 012?

It's in the Answer and full solution section above, hidden until you open it. If you only want a push, open the hints one at a time first.

Where is Puzzle 012?

In the Dromedary Lobby in Chapter 1. After Puzzle 011, head into the Dromedary hotel and talk to Pascal at the front desk to check in.

What happens if a porter buckles?

A "Too bad" message appears, the porters straighten up with empty hands and you can try a new split.

Can I work it out without guessing?

Not entirely. The question doesn't give the bags' weights, so you need at least one test to see who buckles. The hints show which tests to run.

Does the UK version use kilograms?

Yes. The UK text uses kilograms with the same numbers. The bags and the answer are the same.

Is this the same as Sharing the Burden 2?

No. Sharing the Burden 2 is Puzzle 080, a later porter puzzle from Pascal in Chapter 5, worth 30 picarats.

Is Daily Puzzle 012 the same as Puzzle 012?

No. Daily Puzzle 012 is Tile 02 (Tetraton 02 in the UK version). Story Puzzle 012 is Pascal's porter puzzle.

More Miracle Mask puzzles

For the rest of the game's puzzles, see the Miracle Mask puzzle index.