A Rhyming Riddle
Set to Music
A Riddle that Invites a Solution
| As I was going to St Ives, I met a man with seven wives. Each wife had seven sacks; Each sack had seven cats; Each cat had seven kits. Kits, cats, sacks and wives: How many were going to St Ives? |
| Solution |
| One man, plus |
| Seven wives = 1 + 7, with |
| Seven sacks = 1 + 7 + (7 × 7)—or 7 squared—with |
| Seven cats = 1 + 7 + (7 squared) + (7 × 7 × 7)—or 7 cubed—with |
| Seven kits. = 1 + 7 + (7 squared) + (7 cubed) + (7 × 7 × 7 × 7)—or 7 to the fourth power—EQUALS |
| One. “I” was going “to” St. Ives. “They” were coming “from” St. Ives. |
Jeremy Irons (the German-accented voice on the phone line, making the riddle with a death threat if it is not solved in 30 seconds), with Samuel L. Jackson, the quick-thinking brain who solves the riddle, and Bruce Willis dialing the phone (with a hangover, just in time to avert disaster), in the 1995 film “Die Hard with a Vengeance”. (Take caution: “Die Hard” films are notorious for a profusion of the most obscene and blasphemous language.)
This shortlink
https://1000-good-songs.org/p/1099