Well … since it is titled as brain teaser, off course the simple answer of #1 and #2 is incorrect. Here are the most common answers given:
- Splitting the revenue evenly (50-50) so that Person A and B both gets $4 is wrong.
- Person A gets $3 and Person B gets $5 is also wrong
- Person A gets $1 and Person B gets $7 is the right answer.
Wait … how can A gets only $1 and B gets $7 is the right answer? Well … read on …
So here’s why:
- Total of 8 loafs of bread being eaten equally by 3 people
- So each person ate 8/3 loafs of bread.
- You can also think of this as each loafs of bread is sliced into 3 for a total of 24 slices and each person ate 8 slices.
- Person A brought 3 loafs of bread, or 9 slices of bread.
- Person B brought 5 loafs of bread, or 15 slices of bread
- Person C ate 8 slices, 1 slice from Person A’s bread, and 7 slices from Person B’s bread.
- The price per slice is $1. So sA gets $1 and B gets $7.
There you have it. Most people who answered A gets $3 and B gets $5 because A contributes 3 loafs of bread and B contributes 5 fail to consider that both A and B also ate from their own contribution. This, I think, is the heart of the brain teaser.
Source: many of my Muslim brothers or sisters may recognize this brain teaser from an example of Hazrat Ali ibn Abu Thalib’s skill as judge.
