An old man, with four sons and three daughters, buried a safebox with valuables inside. He wanted his children to get it when he died, but neither the boys nor the girls to get it all for themselves; he desired that at least two sons and two daughters had to be involved in order to find the missing treasure.

(For example, the three girls on their own couldn't find the treasure, even if one boy helped them. The four boys and one girl couldn't find it either.)

How could he manage this?

The man gives each of his children a 'secret' code and warns them that if the share the code their brothers or sisters might use it, and cut them out of their share of the fortune.

He then puts a map and a key in another safebox with a combination lock. To unlock it each of his childred must enter in the code he gave them.

He gave all four of his sons the code "S" and all three of his daughters the code "D". The lock will be opened by any combination code of SSDD or SDSD or DSSD etc.

Posted by Amber on 2005-07-18 03:12:11