Mike Moffatt is a smart guy.

He has a doctorate in management science, a master’s in economics and a special interest, according to Western University, “in the intersection of societal issues, public policy, economic growth, monetary policy and firm level strategy.”

But a little note tucked inside a textbook on a library shelf has him scratching his well-educated head.

“It’s a complete mystery to me,” Moffatt, an assistant professor, said Tuesday. “We have a number of people trying different things and looking at it from different angles but nobody’s been able to figure it out.”

He hopes that by offering a $100 reward, the case will be cracked.

Moffatt found the note while working at D.B. Weldon Library at Western about 12:30 p.m. Sunday. He had taken about 10 books off the shelf and when he opened an obscure text on international economics, he found an envelope.

Inside the envelope was a green plastic leaf, dotted with a splotch of red and splotch of cyan paint, and a note made of symbols.

Now and then, the symbols are separated by a picture of a leaf. The note also contains a small drawing of what appears to be a pillow at the bottom left corner.

Moffatt and some friends started to analyze the note, quickly discounting theories the 40-plus symbols represented letters or that it was simply someone fooling around with symbolic fonts on a computer.

“It looks like it was laser printed. Somebody went to a fair amount of work to do this. It looks custom-made, which makes it even more mysterious.”

More complicated analyses have come up with dead ends. Moffatt has contacted about 50 people and is getting suggestions by e-mail and through social media as well.

Someone suggested the red and cyan paint, the colours of 3D glass lenses, meant the note had to be read with the novelty spectacles.

Moffatt tried that Tuesday afternoon. It didn’t work.

Someone else suggested looking at the note under ultraviolet light, “which seems a little CSI to me,” Moffatt said with a laugh.

Moffatt thinks the leaf and the little grey pillow, or whatever it is, hold the clues to cracking the code.

Even as he continued his search Tuesday, new clues were surfacing.

An employee at Weldon had come across two similar notes and, seeing the story on lfpress.com Tuesday morning, sent copies to Moffatt. The employee did not have information about the books that contained the notes.

Each of the new notes has similar symbols, but in one the symbols are separated by pictures of a feather and in one, by pictures of a diamond.

randy.richmond@sunmedia.ca