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Marinella wrote:The donkey riddle threw me completely, I still don't get it, even though I know the answer

Saint Jimmy wrote:

Marinella wrote:The donkey riddle threw me completely, I still don't get it, even though I know the answer

OK, try it again:
a farmer's got 2,000 apples, a donkey that can carry only 1,000 apples max, and the market is 1,000 km away from where he lives.
The donkey will only walk if he is fed an apple for each kilometer it walks. If it's not fed its apple, it stops walking and won't budge.

The farmer wants to take his apples to the market to sell, but obviously the donkey is going to eat some along the way, so he's not going to be able to sell all of them. So, what's the maximum number of apples he can eventually sell?

(hint: the farmer can leave apples on the roadside, on the way to the market, and they won't rot or be stolen)



Is it any clearer now?

Cant he just dhl them?

The farmer can take to the village 334 apples to sell. In the meantime, ultimately selling these 334 apples will have cost him 1666 apples.

My thinking is based on the hint.
If the farmer throws one apple on the roadside per kilometer while the donkey walks, then the first batch of 1000 apples can take him up to 333 km along the way, before the donkey has to return because the apples will have run out. So, the donkey eats 333 apples on the way to the village, 333 on the way back, and 334 are left on the roadside.
Route 2: the donkey eats the apples on the road, until the 334th km has been covered, and then it starts eating from the batch it's carrying. That means it'll need another 666 apples to go all the way, and the farmer can sell the 334 remaining ones.