Many years ago, a wise man died of old age and left his belongings to his three sons. When his three sons opened his will they found that their father decided to equally distribute his wealth except his 17 camels. To teach them a final lesson the wise old man decided to set a condition which stated that his sons will not receive a single cent until they find a way to successfully distribute the 17 camels as it was stated in the will.

The will stated that the eldest son should get one-half of the camels, the middle son should get one-third of the camels and the youngest son should receive one-ninth of the camels. Suddenly the three brothers had a problem while doing their calculations and they could not find a solution. Soon a dispute arose among the brothers. The eldest son argued that the father’s will was in error because one-half, one-third, and one-ninth do not add up to a whole. He felt that he should receive all the camels because this was the tradition in the community. The middle son said his wife is most probably very sick and pleaded for an extra camel so that he could sustain his family. The youngest son argued that there was a mistake and that what was allocated to him was actually one-sixth and not one-ninth.

The feud became so heated that the families did not speak to each other. The brothers no longer allowed their children to play together. One of the siblings even thought of killing some of the camels or one of his brothers. The brothers desperately needed to resolve this conflict. Before something really bad would happen they finally agreed to go to a wise old man in town and ask him for help with their problem. They gave him the right to dictate a solution. After hearing the brothers out the old man pondered for a few minutes. Then he stood up went to get a saddle and gave it to the brothers saying “I’m an old man. I think I do not need my camel anymore. I will give my camel to you three brothers. Now you have 18 camels and I believe you are able to solve your problem.”

The sons didn’t understand what was going on so the old man started reading their fathers will again, As the wise old man read the will he started calculating. One-half of eighteen is nine camels to the eldest son, one-third of eighteen means six camels for the second son and one-ninth of eighteen is two camels for the third son which sums up to a total of seventeen camels. After receiving the solutions the three brothers were so happy that they gave their one unassigned camel back to the wise man as a gift.