Three brothers, 35 camels, and shares that don't add up to one
A father dies leaving thirty-five camels to be split among his three sons: half to the eldest, a third to the middle son, and a ninth to the youngest. The brothers argue for days — camels can't be chopped into fractions, and no whole-number split satisfies all three shares. A traveling stranger, overhearing the dispute, offers a strange solution using nothing but his own single camel. How does he divide the herd fairly, with camels to spare?
Reveal the answer
The stranger lends his camel, making 36. The eldest gets half (18), the middle son a third (12), and the youngest a ninth (4) — 18+12+4=34, leaving two camels: the stranger takes back his own and keeps the other as payment for his cleverness. The trick works because 1/2+1/3+1/9 = 17/18, not 1, so the shares as stated never actually add up to the whole herd. This is the opening puzzle ('The Thirty-Five Camels') of Malba Tahan's 'The Man Who Counted' (1938), a classic of Brazilian puzzle-fiction.
— Malba Tahan (Julio Cesar de Mello e Souza), The Man Who Counted (O Homem que Calculava) — Chapter 1, 'The Thirty-Five Camels', 1938
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