A father left 17 camels to his three sons and, according to the will, the eldest son should be given a half of all camels, the middle son one-third of all camels and the youngest son one-ninth of the camels. This is hard to do, but a wise man helped the sons: he added his own camel, the oldest son took 9 (half of 18) camels, the second son took 6 (one third of 18) camels, the third son 2 (one ninth of 18) camels and the wise man took back his own camel and everyone was happy.
Can you explain the mathematics of this nineteenth century parable?
