A half, a third and a ninth make 17/18, not 1. Divide 18 that way and each son gets a little more than his strict share, nine instead of eight and a half and so on, and there is still one horse left over: the neighbour’s.
A farmer dies and leaves his 17 horses to his three sons: half to the eldest, a third to the middle one and a ninth to the youngest. No horse may be cut up. A neighbour lends them his own horse to make 18. The eldest takes 9, the middle son 6 and the youngest 2, and the neighbour rides his own horse home. How did that work?
Give me a hintThe hint
Add up the three fractions.
Reveal the answerHide the answer
The will only gave away seventeen eighteenths
Source: Traditional; in Sam Loyd, Cyclopedia of Puzzles, 1914, as seventeen camels