All Wet Mystery Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(not chosen)
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The above coordinates are not the
coordinates of the cache.
A wine merchant dies with an inventory of seven full barrels, seven
half full barrels and seven empty barrels. His three sons travel
with their wives to mourn at his funeral. In route to the funeral
they come upon a river. They find only one boat that can hold only
two people at a time. Since all the sons are extremely jealous, no
women can be left with a man unless her husband is also present.
After giving it much thought, they all cross the river and continue
on their way.
Before the funeral, the sons are told that their father's will
stipulates that his entire inventory is to be divided equally so
that each son should receive exactly the same number of full
barrels, half full barrels, and empty barrels.
After the funeral, the eldest son shares one of his half full
barrels at a party to celebrate their father's life. When the party
is over, he divides his empty barrels between his two brothers,
sells his remaining barrels to a local merchant and returns
home.
Seeing the good deal their brother got, the other two sons decide
to sell their barrels as well. The local merchant pays three times
as much for a half full barrel than for an empty barrel, and four
times as much for a full barrel.
The youngest son sells all of his barrels as is and returns home.
On his way home, he encounters a fowl merchant who is offering
swans for $10 each, geese for $3 each, and ducks for 50 cents each.
Using all the money from his wine sale, the young son buys 100
birds (at least one of each).
The middle son, being a bit wiser, decides to maximize his profit
by making as many half full barrels as he can. He then sells all
his barrels for $115 and returns home.
The cache is located at N 37° 40.ABC' W 121°
44.DEF'.
A = number of half full barrels the eldest son sold
B = sale price of an empty barrel - number of empty barrels
the middle son sold
C = minimum number of river crossings in route to funeral -
number of empty barrels youngest son received from father
D = number of swans purchased + number of ducks
purchased
E = dollar amount the youngest son received for his empty
barrels
F = dollar amount the eldest son received for all his
barrels
A + B + C + D + E + F =
6
If any final answer is more than one digit, keep adding the
digits until you are left with one digit.
If any final answer is negative, assume it to be positive.
The usual stuff... stash note, log sheet, pen and a few small trade
items. FTF prize is an unused TB tag.
Congrats to geodanimal on FTF.
08/03/05 - Adjusted coords... and puzzle questions to reflect it.
Actual puzzle was unchanged. Made it a 4.5/1.5
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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