Question

All the King's Horses....
Once there was a king who could count only up to 9. Up to what number can you count?
The king loved horses. But he could never count all of them. He kept them in such a way that he needed to count only up to 9 from each side.



How many horses in all did the king have? _______

One day a visitor with 4 horses came there. It was getting dark so he wanted to stay there at night. But the horse-keeper was scared. If the king saw these extra horses he would be very angry! The visitor said ― do not worry. The king will never know. So he arranged the horses like this:




How many horses are there now? _______




At night the king came to count horses. Along each side he counted 9 horses. Ah! That's fine ‒ he said. Then he happily went to sleep.
In the morning the clever visitor tried another trick. He took out his own 4 horses. But he also ran away with some of the king's horses. He left the king's horses standing in this way.
The silly king did not find any horse missing. Can you help him?




How many horses are now left? ________
How many of the king's horses were taken away?

Answer 1

The king had 24 horses in all.

The visitor had 4 horses with him. When he kept his horses with the horses of the king, then there were a total of 28 horses.

The visitor took out his 4 horses along with some of the king's horses.
Total number of horses left = 20
Number of king's horses taken away by the visitor = 24 − 20
= 4
Thus, the visitor took 4 horses of the king along with his own 4 horses.