The Abbot's Puzzle
The first English puzzlist whose name has come down to us was a Yorkshireman--no other than Alcuin, Abbot of Canterbury (A.D. 735-804). Here is a little puzzle from his works, which is at least interesting on account of its antiquity. "If 100 bushels of corn were distributed among 100 people in such a manner that each man received three bushels, each woman two, and each child half a bushel, how many men, women, and children were there?"
Now, there are six different correct answers, if we exclude a case where there would be no women. But let us say that there were just five times as many women as men, then what is the correct solution?
H. E. Dudeney, Amusements in Mathematics (1917) · No. 110
No hints for this one.
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