Ram and Sudhir were
friends for many
years. Then, they
made a new friend –
Mahesh.
After Sudhir’s wife
died, his niece began
keeping house for
him. Ram was also a widower,
and lived with his daughter.
Mahesh, the youngest of the
trio, was a bachelor. When he
got married, he and his wife
came up with a suggestion.
Why shouldn’t they all live
together? On the first day of
the month, each member of
the party (male and female)
should contribute Rs. 500/-
towards household expenses.
At the end of the month,
whatever remained was
to be equally divided
among all the members.
The idea found favour
with the others, and they
started living together.
At the end of the first
month, it was found that
Rs. 1984/- had been spent on
household expenses.
Now comes the surprise.
When the remainder was distributed among the members
of the household, each person
received an even number of
rupees without fractions. How
was this possible? How much
did each person receive, and
why?
Solution Mrs.Mahesh was the daughter of Ram, and also the niece of Sudhir! So, there were only 4 persons in the household. Rs 2000/- was the total contribution from all the members. Out of this, Rs 1984/- was spent. The remaining amount Rs 16/- was distributed equally amoung 4. Thus each person got Rs 4/-.
