“ How many livestock have you Farmer Giles?”
“All cows but four” he replied.
“All bulls but four” he also replied.
“Have you any horses?”
“I have as many horses as cattle, not counting the chickens!”
“Have you many chickens?”
"I'm not sure how many chickens I have."
How many livestock did Farmer Giles have?

The above text was copied verbatim from “Mensa puzzle book II” (by Carter and Russel).
While the book provides a solution to this dialog, another valid solution was somehow not quoted.

Please find both.

(In reply to solutions by Charlie)

There are multiple solutions that could be unintended, yet valid.
One of the other solutions could be:
(2 elephant cows, 2 elephant bulls, 2 chickens)

A cow is not necessarily a bovine. The term may even be used to describe any bovine -- male or female. A bull is not necessarily a bovine, either.  A positive number given of any cow or bull must be livestock due to the initial question, yet this is not violated by this solution as an elephant can be considered livestock.

As a bull bovine (cattle) can be termed a cow, there could also be:
(4 bulls (cowscattle), 4 horses, 0 chickens),
(3 bulls (cowscattle), 3 horses, 1 chicken),
(2 bulls (cowscattle), 2 horses, 2 chickens),
(1 bull  (cowhead of cattle), 1 horse, 3 chickens).

One could infer that the uncertainty of Farmer Giles chicken count may mean there must be more than one chicken on his farm, yet the inference does not invalidate the existence of more than one possible answer to the puzzle. 

Edited on October 21, 2014, 4:05 pm

Posted by Dej Mar on 2014-10-21 15:45:10