The Puzzle of 17 Cows
A father had 17 cows, which were his most valuable asset. When he passed away, he left behind a will for his three sons. The will detailed how the cows should be divided among them.
In the will, the father stated that the eldest son should receive half of the cows, the middle son should get one-third, and the youngest son should be given one-ninth. However, as soon as the brothers started trying to divide the cows according to the will, they ran into a problem.
Since 17 is an odd number, it’s impossible to divide 17 cows in half, or into thirds, or even into ninths without breaking the cows into parts, which obviously couldn’t happen. The brothers began to argue about how they should divide the cows fairly. Each one wanted to follow their father’s will, but they just couldn’t figure out how to do it.
The disagreement grew, and they realized they needed help. So, they decided to visit a wise man known for solving difficult problems in their village. The brothers told the wise man about the will. They explained their struggle to divide the cows as their father had instructed.
The wise man listened patiently and thought carefully. After a short pause, he came up with an idea to solve the puzzle of 17 cows. For that, he went to his own barn and brought one of his cows to add to the 17 cows. This increased the total number of cows to 18.
Now, the wise man started dividing the cows based on the instructions in the father’s will.
He then gave:
- 9 cows to the eldest son (half of 18),
- 6 cows to the middle son (one-third of 18),
- 2 cows to the youngest son (one-ninth of 18).
After distributing the cows according to the will, the wise man asked the brothers to count the cows. They counted and found that the eldest son had 9 cows, the middle son had 6 cows, and the youngest son had 2 cows. When they added it all together, they realized that 9 + 6 + 2 equals 17 cows.
The extra cow, which the wise man had brought, was no longer needed. So the wise man took back his cow and returned home.
Moral
The essence of problem-solving lies in finding the common ground. Just like the wise man found the “18th cow” to solve the puzzle of 17 cows, we should also identify the common ground to solve our problems.
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