The Will

Once upon a time there was a kingdom called Somapuri where lived a rich old man called Somaduttan. He had three sons who were more inclined to their fathers wealth. Somaduttan had seventeen elephants. During his last hours. He called all of his three sons and made his will.

According to the will the elephants were to be divided such that half of the total goes to the eldest son, one third of the total number to the second son and one ninth to the third.

Soon the old man passed away and the sons divided the wealth. All the other things were correctly shared according to the will excluding the elephants. The eldest who is eligible to get half of seventeen would be 8.5. He wanted exactly the same and was not willing to give up on the 0.5. The second sons' share would be one third of seventeen that is 5.6666... , he also wasn't ready to round the figure. The third son wanted exactly the 1.888... written to his share according to the will. None of them was ready to give up and the argument grew.

A Lot of people tried to negotiate with the brothers, but none could succeed as the brothers refused to compromise on their stand. They advertised with the issue and offered good prize to anyone who could solve the fix.

A famous mathematician of the time- Appaji on seeing the advertisement came to the place with one elephant. He told the brothers to bring all seventeen elephants and stand them in a line. Then, he stood his elephant also in the line making it to 18. Now he told the eldest son to take his share from the line, he took nine elephants, which is half of the total number. Then, Appaji told the second son to take his share that is six elephants the one third of the total and finally the youngest brother was told to take two, which will give him one ninth, leaving behind Appaji's elephant which he happily took back.