Once upon a time, there lived a wealthy farmer
who had 30 children, 15 by his kind first wife who was dead, and
15 by his evil second wife. The latter woman was eager that her
eldest son should inherit the property. Accordingly one day she
said to him, "Dear Husband, you are getting old. We ought to
settle who shall be your heir. Let us arrange our 30 children in
circle, and counting from one of them, remove every tenth child
until there remains but one, who shall succeed to your estate."
The proposal seemed reasonable. As the process of selection
went on, the farmer grew more and more astonished as he noticed
that the first 14 to disappear were children by his first wife,
and he observed that the next to go would be the last remaining
member of that family. So he suggested that they should see what
would happen if they began to count backwards from this lad.
She, forced to make an immediate decision, and reflecting that
the odds were now 15 to 1 in favor of her family, readily
assented. Who became the heir?
