Riddle of the Week

Riddle of the Week: The Pirates and Their Booty

Difficultly level: Hard

By Jay Bennett

For this week's riddle, we take a look at some greedy pirates trying to decide how to divvy up their stolen coins. Make the wrong suggestion, and get tossed overboard.

PROBLEM

Five pirates board a commercial vessel, do what pirates do best, and flee with 100 gold coins. Back on their own ship, the scalawags must decide how to divvy up the booty.

The pirates have a system that they are sworn to follow, else they be killed. It works like this: The oldest among them proposes a way to divide the coins. Then all the pirates, including the one that made the proposal, vote on whether or not to accept the terms. If 50 percent or more accept, then they divvy the loot as proposed. If less than 50 percent of the pirates agree to the plan, then the pirate who made the suggestion is thrown overboard and killed. The next oldest pirate then makes a suggestion, and they vote again.

There are a few important things to know about these pirates. First, they will make their decisions according to whatever will net them the most money without getting them killed. Second, they are bloodthirsty pirates, and all other things being equal, they would rather throw someone overboard. Third, they do not trust each other in the slightest and will make no agreements amongst themselves to determine how they vote. Finally, these are highly logical pirates, capable of considering all possible outcomes.

Let's consider the pirates A, B, C, D and E, with A being the oldest and E the youngest. How should Pirate A suggest they divvy up the coins?

HINT

Like many riddles, it will help to start at the end and work backwards.