The Villager and the Professor

A famous professor of great erudition was visiting a village one day.  He sat in the local coffeehouse where the village men gathered around his table to listen to him expound on one subject after another.  Finally one of the villagers interrupted the professor with the following proposition.

“I’ll ask you a question, my dear professor.  If you can’t answer it, you’ll pay me ten liras.  Then you ask me a question, and if I can’t answer it, I’ll pay you two liras.  This is fair,” continued the villager, “because you’re a man of great knowledge and education, while I’m simply an ignorant peasant.”

The professor accepted the proposal, and the villager asked his question:  “What creature has one leg and four heads?”

After thinking for a long while, the professor admitted he didn’t know, so he paid the villager ten liras. 

The professor then asked the villager to answer his own question.  “Sorry, but I don’t know either,” replied the villager as he paid the professor two liras.

The last anecdote shows how human ingenuity can overcome the apparent immutability of numbered objects.

The Three Sons and Their Camels

A man died, leaving seventeen camels to be divided among his three sons.  In his will he bequeathed half the camels to his oldest son; one-third of the camels to his middle son; and one-ninth of the camels to his youngest son. 

Even with the help of the town’s best mathematician, however, they could not figure out a way to divide the camels as their father had wished.  Eventually, they took their problem to the Caliph.