(This "nonsense puzzle" gets its name from the puzzle I saw it from)

A shopper went into a shop and wanted a dollar's worth of chestnuts when he gave the shopkeeper a one dollar bill and was given five chestnuts. "It is not enough; I ought to have a sixth," the shopper remarked. "But you will have five too many if I gave you one chestnut more", the shopkeeper replied.

How many chestnuts should the man have gotten for 3 twenty dollar bills?

(In reply to solution by Popstar Dave)

Popstar Dave: "Thus the shopkeeper was saying that the rate for chestnuts was 5 and 1/6 chestnuts for $1."

Why would someone want 1/6 of a chestnut?

Posted by Penny on 2004-01-06 11:37:35