Seventeen Camels and Where They Can Take You(mathenchant.wordpress.com) |
Seventeen Camels and Where They Can Take You(mathenchant.wordpress.com) |
You are correct that it's not solvable in a rigorous mathematical sense as stated.
Note that the integer solution leaves no son cheated out of their inheritance. Everyone gets their apportionment, and a little more.
Of course, that's still got the same kind of 'but that's not in the rules' issue, but I think the bigger element is that it's not really meant as a "puzzle", but more showing off the unintuitive nature of the results.