thin king

Hello everybody,


Delicious Monkey Nuts

Once upon a time, a ship was wrecked by a very violent storm
and sank in the ocean. However, four of the sailors escaped and
arrived at a small island far off the eastern coast of Eropagnis.

In their search for food, they came upon a monkey fruit tree in
its great abundance. The monkey nuts were very delicious,
and in their frenzy they plucked all the nuts. They ate their fill
till night time. Then, having agreed to share the great pile of nuts
equally in the morning, they went to sleep.

But in the night, one of them wanted to play it safe. He got up
and divided the pile into four equal lots, leaving one extra. He ate
the extra, put the three other lots together, took his own share
and hid it and went to sleep. Later, another sailor had the same
idea,and he did exactly the same thing as the first sailor had done.
He also ate the extra nut, put the other three lots together, took his
own share and hid it and went to sleep. Well, like birds of the same
feather, the other two had the same idea and did the same thing,
the fourth after the third; each ate the extra, put the other three
lots together, took his own share and hid it and went to sleep.

They all slept soundly after that, and when dawn broke they shared
the remaining pile equally; again, having one extra nut which they
threw to a monkey which came by.

Although they all knew that the last pile of monkey nuts was very
much smaller, each kept his own guilty secret, and everyone was
happy with the outcome, albeit the unequal distribution.

Well, since this story has held your interest so far it has served its
dual purposes, because it is actually a puzzle .

How many monkey nuts were there in the great big pile
before they went to sleep?

Have a nice weekend.
Ronald