Puzzler of the week

[Scott MacLean]

This week's puzzler:

Two Bedouins were traveling across the desert to a distant village. In the middle of the day, they sat down to eat the loaves of bread that they had brought with them for lunch.  One of them had five loaves and the other had three.

Just as they were ready to eat, a stranger comes along and asks if he might share their meal.

He said he had plenty of money but no food.  The two agreed to divide their loaves equally among the three of them.

After the meal was finished, the stranger laid down eight coins of equal value for what he had eaten and he went away.  The traveler who had five loaves took up five coins and left three for the other guy. But the other guy disputed it, saying, "We shared the bread, we should each get four coins."  Since they could not agree, they called in a magistrate. The magistrate listened to the story and then figured out who should get what.

The question is, who's right? Or, is neither of them right?


Last week's puzzler:

A fellow is driving his car and gets pulled over by a cop. The cop says, "I happened to notice as you were driving by, that your inspection sticker expired six months ago. I'm going to have to give you a ticket."

The fellow replies, "You're not going to believe this, but this is the first time that the car has been driven in seven months.  You see, I was let go from my last job and while the security people were escorting me from the building I fell down a flight of stairs and broke my hip. I've had a pretty rough go of it, what with the surgery, the steel pins and the rehab. I've been home all these months.  I haven't gotten the inspection sticker because it expired while I was convalescing. Just yesterday I got a job offer, and I'm heading for an interview tomorrow.  But I figured, I better go get my inspection sticker because I knew it had expired."

The cop seems to be buying this whole story. He says, "I do feel pretty bad for you. That's a sad story, and I hope you get the job.  But I'm going to have to see your driver's license to make sure that that hasn't expired."

The fellow opens the door to the car, undoes the seatbelt, gets out and reaches for his wallet to get his driver's license.

And the cop says, "I'll definitely need to see that license because I'm writing you a ticket."

His car had been driven during the period of time that he said it wasn't being driven.

What did the cop see?

Last week's puzzler answer:

This is not the first time that this car has been driven in seven months. The question was, what did the cop see? What the cop saw as soon as the fellow opened the door, was the little sticker that gas stations often affix to either the door or the door pillar that says, your next oil change is due in three months, and they put the date on it. And it gave him away. He'd had an oil change three months ago and if this is the first time he's driven the car, he's in deep trouble.

_______________________
Scott MacLean
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