text: how to divide 17 camels equally? a man dies and bequeaths 17 camels to his 3 sons. to the first-born son, he gives 1/2. to the middle son, he gives 1/3. to the youngest, he gives 1/9. the sons are confused because it seems they may have to slaughter one of the camels in order to fulfill their father's wishes. however, a wise man arrives at the scene riding upon his own camel and solves the problem for the three sons. no camels needed to be slaughtered, and the father's wishes were fulfilled.  the wise man bid farewell as he rode away on his camel. how did the wise man resolve this dilemma? he added his own camel to initially make 18. then 1/2=9, 1/3=6 and 1/9=2.  add them up and you get 17. then the wise man took his own camel away.  i hope thats the answer-it seems to work with everyone left happy