Believing That There is a Solution: The 18th Camel

The father left 17 camels as inheritance for his three sons. When the father passed away, his sons opened up the will.

The Will of the father stated that the eldest son should be given one-half (1/2) of the 17 camels while the middle son should be given one-third (1/3). The youngest son should be given one-ninth (1/9) of the 17 camels.

As it is not possible to divide 17 into 2; or 17 by 3; or 17 by 9; the three sons started to fight with each other.

Eventually they decided to go to a wise man. The wise man listened patiently as the Will was read. After giving this some thought, the wise man, brought one camel of his own and added the same to 17. That increased the total to 18 camels.

Now, he started reading the deceased father’s will.

One-half of 18 = 9. So he gave the eldest son 9 camels.

One- third of 18 = 6. So he gave the middle son 6 camels

One-ninth of 18 = 2. So he gave the youngest son 2 camels.

Now add this up: 9 plus 6 plus 2 is 17 and this leaves one camel, which the wise man took back.

Moral of the story: The attitude of negotiation and problem solving is to find the 18th camel i.e. the common ground. Once a person is able to find the common ground the issue is resolved.

It is difficult at times. However, to reach a solution, the first step is to believe that there is a solution.

If we think that there is no solution, we won’t be able to reach any

(I edited this from an FB post of Ramon Averia.)