The Problem: Two cuts seven pieces


You are a merchant who needs to get his goods to market seven days sail down river. The port is very busy and after an exhaustive search of the port you only manage to find one ship for the journey. The captain does not believe in taking or giving credit, and insists that you pay in full and in gold at the end of each days sailing. Unfortunately, this is a problem because while you have enough to pay for the trip in total, all you have on you is a gold bar and two pieces of silver.

You tell your problem to the captain and he assures you that there will not be a problem paying at the end of every day and sends you to a smith in town who will charge you one piece of silver per cut to the bar. How can you tell the smith to make two cuts to the bar so that that you can pay the captain at the end of each day.

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