Long ago, there lived an old man with his three sons in a deserted village located near a desert. He had 17 camels, which were the main source of his income. He used to rent out camels as a means of transportation across the desert. One day, he passed away, leaving a will that distributed his assets among his three sons.
After the funeral and other obligations were completed, the three sons read the will. While their father had divided all his other property into three equal parts, he had divided the 17 camels differently. They were not shared equally among the three, as 17 is an odd number and a prime number that cannot be divided evenly.
The old man had stated that the eldest son would own half of the 17 camels, the middle son would get one-third of the 17 camels, and the youngest son would get his share as one-ninth of the camels.
All of them were stunned to read the will and questioned how they could divide the 17 camels as specified. It was impossible to divide 17 camels and give half to the eldest son, and equally impossible to divide them for the other two sons according to the will.
They spent several days thinking of ways to divide the camels as mentioned in the will, but none could find a solution.
Finally, they took the issue to the wise man in their village. The wise man heard the problem and instantly found a solution. He asked them to bring all 17 camels to him.
The sons brought the camels to the wise man's place. The wise man added one of his own camels, making the total number 18.
Now, he asked the first son to read the will. As per the will, the eldest son got half the camels, which now counted to 18 ÷ 2 = 9 camels. The eldest son received 9 camels as his share.
The remaining camels were 9.
The wise man asked the second son to read the will. He was assigned one-third of the total camels, which came to 18 ÷ 3 = 6 camels. The second son received 6 camels as his share.
The total number of camels shared by the elder sons was 9 + 6 = 15 camels.
The third son read out his share: one-ninth of the total number of camels, which was 18 ÷ 9 = 2 camels. The youngest son received 2 camels as his share.
In total, there were 9 + 6 + 2 = 17 camels shared among the brothers.
Now, the one camel added by the wise man was taken back.
The wise man solved this problem cleverly with his intelligence.
Intelligence is nothing but finding a common ground to solve an issue. In short, every problem has a solution.