60-second Stories

17 Gold Coins

Once upon a time, a rich man died. In his will he said that he would like to give one half of his 17 gold coins to his eldest son, one third to his middle son and one ninth to his youngest son. The three brothers tried their best to find a solution but they couldn't figure out how. They were distressed.

An old man passed by and asked the brothers why they looked so depressed. They explained the problem to the old man and he offered to help.

"Let me give you a gold coin but you have to promise me that I can get back a gold coin when I want to," said the old man. The brothers agreed. He then pulled one big gold coin out from his pocket and added it to the pool of gold coins. 17 now became 18.

He then gave 2 gold coins to the youngest son and 6 to the middle son.

The eldest son saw what happened. He immediately grabbed 9 gold coins, including the big one originally from the old man. "This is the one half that I deserve," said the eldest son.

"Sounds good. Can I get back a gold coin now?" said the old man.

While the eldest son nodded his head, the old man put the remaining gold coin in his pocket.

"You are such a greedy person," said the old man. "You already have the most and you still want more. My gold coin was made of copper. It's just gold coloured. You can have it now."

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Notes:

This story was inspired by an ancient Arab math problem called the eighteenth camel. I heard about this math problem when I was a kid. I turned this math problem into a morality tale :)