Three boys went to their neighbour’s tree to steal apples. Only one of them could climb so that the boy might start to pick apples.
The neighbour woke up and he came outside to investigate. The other two boys who couldn’t climb got scared and ran away.
The boy up in the tree waited patiently until the neighbour left, and then got down with the apples he picked. He divided them into three equal parts and left with his share.
The next day the second boy came and he saw the apples lying around. He divided them into three sections and took the share with the most apples.
A few hours later, the third boy arrived and took all the apples that were left.
The next day when they met again, they found out they all had the same number of apples.
How could this be? How many apples were there if the boy picked fewer than 9 apples?
Answer
There were 6 apples.
The first boy divided it into 3 sections (2, 2, 2). Then, he took two.
The second boy divided the remaining 4 into 3 sections (2, 1, 1). Then, he took the share with the most apples (2).
The third boy took the remainder (2).
They each had 2 to make a total of 6.
