17 Camels Puzzle Answer: 9, 6 and 2 [Solved]

The 17 camels puzzle answer is 9, 6 and 2. Borrow one camel to make 18, give the eldest son half of 18 (9 camels), the middle son a third of 18 (6 camels), and the youngest son a ninth of 18 (2 camels). Then return the borrowed camel, because 9 plus 6 plus 2 is exactly 17.

A dying father leaves 17 camels to his three sons. The eldest gets half, the middle son gets a third, and the youngest gets a ninth. None of the shares comes out whole. Told for more than a century, it appears in Sam Loyd’s Cyclopedia of Puzzles and in a Gresham College lecture by Professor Ian Stewart, and interviewers still use it because the answer looks like cheating until you check the fractions.

The Question, Stated Plainly

A father owns 17 camels. His will divides them among his three sons: the eldest receives one half of the herd, the middle son receives one third, and the youngest receives one ninth. The sons gather to divide the herd, and the problem is obvious at once. None of the shares is a whole number of camels.

Son	Share in the will	Share of 17 camels
Eldest	One half	8.5 camels
Middle	One third	5.67 camels
Youngest	One ninth	1.89 camels

Half a camel is no use to anyone, but the will says nothing about selling the herd or splitting money. As a result, the sons are stuck. Then a traveler rides past on his own camel, hears the argument, and offers a solution that sounds absurd: lend them his camel, just for the division.

The 17 Camels Puzzle Answer, Step by Step

The traveler adds his camel to the herd, making 18, and the division suddenly works, because 18 divides cleanly by 2, by 3, and by 9.

Step 1: Borrow one camel. The herd grows from 17 camels to 18. The borrowed camel still belongs to the traveler, and everyone agrees it will be returned.

Step 2: Divide 18 by the will. The eldest son takes half of 18, which is 9 camels. A third of 18, 6 camels, goes to the middle son. The youngest son takes a ninth of 18, which is 2 camels.

Step 3: Count what is left. The three shares add up to 9 plus 6 plus 2, which is 17. Exactly one camel remains, and it is the traveler’s camel. He takes it back and rides away, leaving every son with whole camels in hand.

Son	Share of 18 camels	Camels received
Eldest	One half	9
Middle	One third	6
Youngest	One ninth	2
Traveler	Borrowed camel returned	1
Total		18

That is the whole trick. In short, nothing was sold, nothing was cut, and every son received more than his strict share.

Why the 17 Camels Puzzle Answer Works

The 17 camels puzzle answer works because the will never divided the whole herd in the first place. Add the three fractions together and the gap appears.

One half plus one third plus one ninth equals 9/18 plus 6/18 plus 2/18, which is 17/18. In other words, the will covers only seventeen eighteenths of the herd. One eighteenth is missing, and nobody is assigned it. That missing eighteenth is the whole secret.

When the traveler adds one camel, the herd becomes 18, and one eighteenth of 18 is exactly one camel. The borrowed camel fills the gap the will left behind, the shares divide cleanly, and it comes straight back out, because the sons’ shares total 17 camels out of 18.

For example, look at it from each son’s side. The eldest son’s strict share of 17 camels is 8.5, and he receives 9. For the middle son, the strict share is 5.67, while he receives 6. The youngest son’s strict share is 1.89, and he receives 2. As a result, every son gains a fraction of a camel, and nobody loses. The borrowed camel was never part of the inheritance; it only made the arithmetic possible. In fact, the numbers were rigged from the start: 17 is exactly one less than 18, and 18 is the smallest number that divides by 2, 3 and 9.

The Trap Most Candidates Fall Into

The first trap is to sell the camels and split the money. It sounds practical, and it destroys the puzzle. The will says to divide the camels, not the cash, and the classic version of the question forbids harming or selling the animals. An interviewer who hears this answer will point out that you changed the problem instead of solving it.

The second trap is to round the fractions without explaining the borrowed camel. A candidate who says “just give them 9, 6 and 2” has the right numbers and no reasoning. The interviewer will ask where the extra camel came from, and the candidate who cannot answer has guessed, not solved. Remember: the borrowing step is the answer, not a detail to skip.

The third trap is subtler: the will was not followed to the letter. The eldest son did not receive half of 17 camels, he received half of 18. Saying so strengthens, not weakens, your answer. Read literally, the will is impossible to carry out, because its shares add to 17/18 and not to a whole. Interviewers remember candidates who spot the flaw in their own solution.

What the Interviewer Is Testing in the 17 Camels Puzzle Answer

First, they are testing fractions under pressure. The first move is to add the three fractions. A candidate who does that finds the 17/18 gap in seconds. A candidate who starts guessing numbers never finds it.

Second, they are testing whether you can reframe a problem. The sons are stuck because they treat 17 as fixed. The traveler changes the total, temporarily, and the problem dissolves.

Third, they are testing whether you notice slack. The missing 1/18 is a small gap, and most people walk straight past it. Strong candidates look for what a problem leaves out, not only what it states.

Finally, they are testing honesty. The solution has a flaw, and the best candidates name it before the interviewer does. Explaining why the trick is fair, who gains, and what the will actually covers shows a candidate who checks their own work.

Try the 17 Camels Puzzle Answer With Different Numbers

The 17-camel case is special, because 17 is exactly one less than 18. However, try the same will with 35 camels, and the trick still works, but the ending changes. Next, borrow one camel to make 36. The eldest takes half, 18. A third, 12, goes to the middle son. The youngest takes a ninth, 4. Those shares add to 34, so two camels remain: the borrowed camel, plus one extra. In the classic 35-camel tale, that extra camel goes to the wise friend who lent his own as payment for the help.

Similarly, the same gap appears with 18 camels: the shares are 9, 6 and 2, and one camel is still left over, because the will only ever covers 17/18 of the herd. That leftover camel is the puzzle, hiding in plain sight.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was the will actually followed?

Indeed, not to the letter, and it cannot be. The shares in the will add to 17/18, so no division of 17 camels can give every son exactly his stated fraction in whole camels. The 17 camels puzzle answer follows the proportions as closely as whole camels allow. Furthermore, every son receives more than his strict share, so nobody can object.

Why borrow a camel instead of rounding down?

For instance, rounding down gives the eldest 8, the middle son 5, and the youngest 1, which totals 14 and leaves 3 unassigned. Rounding up gives 9, 6 and 2, which totals 17, but without the borrowed camel there is no reason those are the right numbers. Borrowing one camel is what justifies the rounding, because it makes the division exact.

Does the trick work for any number of camels?

So the trick works only when the herd is one less than a multiple of 18. With 17 camels, borrowing one makes 18, and the shares total exactly 17. At 35 camels, borrowing one makes 36, the shares total 34, and one extra camel remains. With 16, borrowing one makes 17, which still does not divide by 2, 3 or 9, so the trick fails.

Try Another Puzzle Next

If you liked the borrowed camel, try the missionaries and cannibals puzzle, where three missionaries and three cannibals must cross a river in a two-person boat, and the answer is 11 trips. For a game-theory puzzle in the same series, try the 21 sticks game, where taking 1 stick first guarantees the win.

Sources: the question is told in Sam Loyd’s Cyclopedia of Puzzles and in Professor Ian Stewart’s Gresham College lecture “The Riddle of the Vanishing Camel”; the wording, the tables, and every explanation above are original.