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by req2 6108 days ago
I believe the standard interpretation of 'lined up' is 'in a line', as in a 'straight curve', which disallows your otherwise ingenious foil.
1 comments

True. But as soon as I thought of the circle, I said to myself 'ah, the idea that it's a straight line is exactly the sort of assumption that you gets you into trouble!' so I threw the whole solution out.

I figured a straight line would be equivalent to a random arrangement with each of the boxes being numbered, so I assumed the vagueness was designed to lead one into making a foolish assumption about their ordinal presentation. Maybe I'm paranoid :-)