Somewhere in the Middle East, a man owned 17 camels – his entire wealth. He had three children who helped him in his transportation business. While on one of their trips, the father fell ill at an oasis. He called his children to his side and told them his last will: the oldest child was to have half of the camels, the middle child one third of the camels, and the youngest child one ninth of the camels (which represented a fair share of the time each had helped the father in his business). Then the man died.
After the burial, the children were faced with the problem of how to divide the camels according to their father’s wishes. The discussion soon centred, rather heatedly on how to kill and cut up some of the camels to come up with the specified shares.
At this moment an old man arrived at camp, hungry and thirsty, and with a camel in the same condition. The old man listened to the argument for a while and then offered to solve the dilemma by giving them his camel, if they would provide shelter and food for him for the night. The children agreed.
During the night, the oldest child decided he better leave with his share of the camels before the old man – or his siblings – had a change of heart. Later, the middle child awoke, noticed nine camels gone, and hastened to depart with six. In the morning, the youngest child, noting that the others had helped themselves to their inheritance, took the allowed two camels, and bid farewell to the old man with thanks.
The old man then resumed his journey with his well-fed and rested camel.
Source: Creative Problem Solving and Engineering Design, Lumsdaine et al., McGraw Hill 1999
• What is the real problem here?
• How do we identify and formulate problems?
