Ten thieves

From Math Puzzle Wiki
Revision as of 07:36, 10 June 2010 by Oscarlevin (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search

Here is a nice short easy puzzle.

Puzzle

Ten thieves have just made off with 56 identical rare gemstones. They realize that it is impossible for each thief to receive an equal number of the gems, but as it turns out, there are just enough senior thieves so that each of them can get exactly one more of the gems than each of the junior thieves. How many senior thieves were there, and how many gems did each thief get?

Help

Hint
What is 56 divided by 10?
Answer
There are 6 senior thieves, who each received 6 gems, while the 4 junior thieves received only 5
Solution
{{{1}}}

References

The Riddle of Scheherazade: And Other Amazing Puzzles by Raymond Smullyan.