It doesn’t matter who we are, we all rely on our wisdom to get by from one day to the next. In some cases, that wisdom is going to be born into us, and that is how we are able to survive the first few years of life. As we get older, however, our wisdom continues to grow and develop and eventually, others may even seek our wisdom to help them in their life. That is what we see in the following joke about an old farmer who was called on to help when his neighbor died.
An old farmer died leaving his 17 horses to his 3 sons.
When his sons opened up the will it read:
‘My eldest son should get 1/2 (half) of total horses;’
‘My middle son should be given 1/3rd (one-third) of the total horses;’
‘My youngest son should be given 1/9th (one-ninth) of the total horses.’
As it’s impossible to divide 17 into half or 17 by 3 or 17 by 9, the three sons started to fight with each other.
So, they decided to go to a farmer friend who they considered quite smart, to see if he could work it out for them.
The farmer friend read the will patiently, and, after giving due thought, brought one of his own horses over and added it to the 17.
That increased the total to 18 horses.
Now, he divided the horses according to their father’s will.
Half of 18 = 9. So he gave the eldest son 9 horses.
1/3rd of 18 = 6. So he gave the middle son 6 horses.
1/9th of 18 = 2. So he gave the youngest son 2 horses.
Now add up how many horses they have:
Eldest son 9
Middle son 6
Youngest son 2
TOTAL = 17
This leaves one horse over, so the farmer friend takes his horse back to his farm