A few weeks ago a farmer died. And the will he left behind... fortunately his three sons had had a good education. His will was as follows:

• The first son would get 1/2 of the cows,
• The second son would get 1/3 of the cows and
• The third son would get 1/9 of the cows.

At first, everything seems fine. But unfortunately, the farmer had 17 cows. And pieces of cows weren't any good to the sons.

But, since the sons had a good education, they came up with a solution. They lent a cow from the neighbour. Why? Then they had 18:

• 18 * 1/2 = 9 for the 1st son,
• 18 * 1/3 = 6 for the second son and
• 18 * 1/9 = 2 for the third son.

'But what about the neighbour,' you may say. Well, since 9 + 6 + 2 is 17, the cow that was left over went back to the neighbour.

What do you think about the sons' education?

Well, the sons' education was fine... it's the old farmer's education that was lacking. 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/9 does not equal 1... No one was chosen to inherit the last 1/18th of all his cows.

Posted by Chris on 2002-05-07 05:28:49