Notorious bandit Clark Sherando was counting the 7 bags of gold coins he had just acquired from holding up the Gore Stagecoach. One bag had 10 coins, another 20 coins, and so on in increments of 10 coins up to 70.
His bandit brother Jimmy Wood rode up on a horse and demanded the 3 bags with the most coins.
Sherando labeled the bags A to G and informed Jimmy that he could have the three biggest bags if he could work out which they were from these simple facts:
Bags B, D, E, and G contain a total of 150 coins.
Bags A, C, D, and E had 100 coins.
Bags A, B, D, and F had 170 coins.
Which three bags should Jimmy take?
Solution to Problem:
Jimmy should take bags B, F, and G.
In order for 4 bags to add up to 100, they must
be 10, 20, 30, and 40. So from clue #2, these must be
bags A, C, D, and E.
Thus the remaining bags must contain 50, 60, and 70.
So, take bags B, F, and G.
However, not everyone was content to just answer the question. Ronald D. Morton, Stan Winston, and Jeannette Scofield sought to determine the contents of each of the 7 bags:
There are four possibilities which satisfy the initial constraints:
A B C D E F G --- --- --- --- --- --- --- 20 50 40 30 10 70 60 30 70 40 10 20 60 50 40 50 20 10 30 70 60 40 50 30 20 10 60 70
Correctly solved by:
| 1. Ryan Throckmorton | Winchester, Virginia |
| 2. George Gaither | Winchester, Virginia |
| 3. David Powell | Winchester, Virginia |
| 4. Simmonds | ---------- |
| 5. Mark Fenster | Dayton, Ohio |
| 6. Kurt Fischer | Joliet, Illinois |
| 7. Louis Farrell | Kimberley, South Africa |
| 8. David Dixon | Bennettsville, South Carolina |
| 9. Gadi Manor | ---------- |
| 10. Steve Stermer | Colorado Springs, Colorado |
| 11. Joe Heintz | Manchester, Tennessee |
| 12. James Alarie | University of Michigan -- Flint |
| 13. Shawn Bercovitch | ---------- |
| 14. LouAnn Dossett | Russellville, Alabama |
| 15. Don Dunsmore | Maryland |
| 16. Karen Russell | ---------- |
| 17. Norman Santora | ---------- |
| 18. Gary Armstrong | Athens, Greece |
| 19. David Jacobson | Houston, Texas |
| 20. Mike Howard | Sunrise, Florida |
| 21. Ron Morton | Pittsburgh, PA |
| 22. Bill Hall | Wellington, Florida |
| 23. Tom Adams | ---------- |
| 24. Jackie | ---------- |
| 25. Barb | ---------- |
| 26. Richard Johnson | La Jolla, California |
| 27. Mark Kantrowitz | ---------- |
| 28. Erin McGinnis | Winchester, Virginia |
| 29. Sasha Joseph | Hebron, Maine |
| 30. Stan Winston | ---------- |
| 31. Jim Kennedy | Limerick, Ireland |
| 32. Jim Netter | Chicago, Illinois |
| 33. Kate Grumbacher | Alexandria, Virginia |
| 34. Kirstine Wynn | Winchester, Virginia |
| 35. Walt Arrison | Philadelphia, PA |
| 36. Josh Stock | Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois |
| 37. Jeannette Scofield | Novato, California |