The only way in which the barrels could be equally divided among the
three brothers, so that each should receive his 3½ barrels of honey
and his 7 barrels, is as follows:--
Full. Half-full. Empty.
A 3 1 3
B 2 3 2
C 2 3 2
There is one other way in which the division could be made, were it not
for the objection that all the brothers made to taking more than four
barrels of the same description. Except for this difficulty, they might
have given B his quantity in exactly the same way as A above, and then
have left C one full barrel, five half-full barrels, and one empty
barrel. It will thus be seen that in any case two brothers would have to
receive their allowance in the same way.