Cow distribution.

A farmer had 17 cows. After his death, his will said 1/2th of the cows go to first son, 1/3 rd to the
second son and 1/9th to the third son.
While the sons where thinking on how to distribute the cows, they saw a wise old man passing by with his cow. On seeking help, he solved the riddle. What did he do?

Answer:
Since there were odd number of cows he added his cow to the group, so now there were 18 cows.
The first son took 1/2th of it, which is 8. The second took 1/3rd of 18, which is 6 cows and the last son took 2 cows, which is 1/9th of 18. Now the old man left the place with his cow.

How many candies to pick?

If a candy box contains 8 cherry candies, 5 orange candies and 4 lemon candies, then how many candies a person has to pick to get at least one of each type?

Answer: Since there are 8 cherry, 5 orange and 4 lemon candies, the person has to pick 14 candies to be sure that he has one of each type. This is because there is possibility that he picks all 8 cherry and 5 orange candies in the first 13 picks and the 14 pick will surely be a lemon in that case. So the sum of the maximums + 1 guaranties one of each color.