RAY:Two Bedouins were traveling across the desert on their way to a distant village. In the middle of the day, they sat down to eat the loaves of bread they had brought with them for lunch. One had five loaves. The other had three, making a total of eight. Just as they're getting ready to eat, a stranger comes along and asks if he might share their meal. He said, "I have plenty of money but, unfortunately, no food." The two agree to divide their loaves equally among the three of them. After the meal is finished, the stranger lays down eight coins of equal value for what he had eaten and goes away. The Bedouin with the five loaves picks five coins and leaves three for the other guy. But the other guy says, "No, no, no, no, Bedouin Breath. Look, we both shared our loaves. We should each get four coins." Since they couldn't agree, they call in a magistrate who happened to be road testing out a camel. The magistrate listens to the story and figures out who should get what. So the question was, was the first guy right, was the second guy right, or were they both wrong? And what's the fair way to divide up the money? Well, it turns out they're both wrong. And the magistrate figures out how they should divide up the money, and here's how he figured it out.

TOM: Go ahead.

RAY: They had five loaves and three loaves. OK? That's eight loaves. Let's say the guy with the five loaves took and cut his five loaves, each of his five loaves up into three pieces. So, he'd have 15 pieces. The guy with the three loaves does the same. He cuts each of his three loaves into nine pieces.

TOM: Ooh, I like it.

RAY: Now interestingly, they have together 24 little pieces of bread. Conveniently, there are three of them. So, each person, each of the three is going to eat eight little pieces of bread. Now, the guy with the 15 loaves eats eight of them himself. That means he has given seven of them to the stranger. The guy with the nine pieces, the guy with the three loaves has cut his up into nine pieces, but he's going to eat eight of them and give one away. So, the magistrate says the guy with the five loaves gets seven coins, and the other guy gets one. So, who's our winner, man?

TOM: The winner is John Boyer from Manhattan, Kansas. And for having his answer selected at random from all the correct answers that we got, John is going to get a $25 gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division at the Car Talk section of Cars.com. With this $25 gift certificate, he can get a copy of our CD, "Why You Should Never Listen to Your Father When It Comes to Cars," which is a great gift for Dad on Father's Day --

RAY: Just like it was last year and the year before. Well, it comes in handy in case you forgot or your father forgot. Get him another one.

TOM: And don't forget. This is the right time to order it because you might get it by next Father's Day.

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]