The Good Thief and His Companions
Four thieves went for a robbery and they stole coconuts from a farm
Then they heard some noise and went hiding behind the bush.
Then the first one came out and he was a good thief.
He divided the coconuts into 4 equal parts and took his share.
The second one case divided the remaining into four equal shares and took one extra and went home.
Then came the third thief who also divided it into four and took two extra coconuts and left.
Then came the fourth man. He took all the remaining coconuts and left.
On the next day when they met in the market interestingly all the four of them had equal number of coconuts with them.
Then what should be the minimum number of coconuts they have collected that they can manage to fulfil all the above conditions without dividing any coconut into pieces.
The answer is 16.
This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try
refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and,
finally, (c)
loading the
non-javascript version of this page
. We're sorry about the hassle.
Both 16 & 12 will give the solution.
FOR 16:- 1st man took 4. remains 12 2nd person makes remaining 12 into 4 parts i.e., 3,3,3,3 and took 1 extra i.e., (3+1). remains 8 3rd person makes 8 into 4 parts as 2,2,2,2 and took 2 extra i.e., (2+2). remains 4, taken by 4th guy.
FOR 12:- 1st guy took 3, remains 9 2nd guy makes remaining as 2,2,2,2 and took one extra i.e., (2+1). remains 6. 3rd guy makes remaining as 1,1,1,1 and took 2 extra i.e., (1+2), remains 3, taken by 4th.
one key point- Nowhere in the question, it is mentioned as coconuts should be divided equally while counting by thieves. But they should get equal number without making coconuts into pieces. so both 12, 16 are correct answers.