Four people are in a bar.

Ben owes Glen a drink. Glen owes Rhen two drinks. Rhen owes Sven three drinks. Sven owes Ben four drinks.

To settle up, what is the minimum number of drinks that need to be bought by who for whom?

The answer is four. Starting with Glen he buys a drink and passes it to Rhen. Rhen buys a drink and passes it (plus the drink from Glen) to Sven who in turn buys a drink and pases it plus the two he has recieved to Ben. At this stage everybody is still owed one drink each. So Ben buys a drink and that drink passes round the whole circle back to himself. It has to be assumed that if only one drink is bought that one drink cannot go round in a continuos circle as Ben only owes one drink and therefore the circle would stop once Ben had paid his debt of one drink to Glen

Posted by Steve on 2002-12-20 04:53:01