Camel Train

A Father left to his three sons, 17 camels. In his will he requested that the first son gets half (1/2) of the camels, the second son gets one-third (1/3rd) of the camels and the third son get one-ninth (1/9th) of the camels.

All three sons get into a heated argument as they try to split the camels. Seventeen cannot be divided by two, by three or by nine, how then would they honour their father’s wish.

The three sons decide to go meet the village elder, the wisest man in the village. They told him of their problem. The wise village elder thought really long and hard to solve this problem. Then announced… "I have no way of solving your problem.” the wise old man said, “However I could lend you one of my camels, which makes your total number of camels to 18, which now can be devised into half (1/2), one-third (1/3) and one-ninth (1/9)."

The brothers were reluctant to take the old man’s camel at first, but proceeded home with 18 camels all together. They started to divide the camels as instructed by their father.

The eldest son gets half of the camels, 1/2 of 18 is 9. The second son gets one-third of the camels, 1/3 of 18 is 6. The youngest son gets one-ninth of the camels, 1/9 of 18 is 2. 9 camels plus 6 camels plus 2 camels is 17. They now find they have one extra camel. Not sure what to do with it they went back to visit the village elder and gave him the last camel back.

Sometimes when there is an insolvable conflict, all that is needed is an extra camel.