A man left to his three sons seventeen camels.

To the first son, he left half the camels. To the second son, he left a third of the camels, and to the youngest son, he left a ninth of the camels.

The three sons began to argue for seventeen doesn’t divide by two. It doesn’t divide by three. It doesn’t divide by nine. In desperation, they went and they consulted a wise woman. she thought about their problem for a long time, and finally said, “Here, you can have my camel.”

So then they had eighteen camels. The first son took his half – half of eighteen is nine. The second son took his third – a third of eighteen is six. The youngest son took his ninth – a ninth of eighteen is two.

That’s seventeen camels. The one camel they had left over they gave back to the wise old woman.