Sardar's Maths

  There is this group of 7 Sardars who plan to go to Delhi to thank the

  President Dr. Zail Singh for his revolutionary policies, from which

  they have greatly benefited. Moreover, they are his old friends, and

  are longing to dine with the president. They agree that it would be

  appropriate to use a taxi. So they go to a taxi driver and ask him  how

  much a ride would cost.

 

  The driver frets a little and tells them, "Sahab! If only four of you

  were to be there I would charge you just the meter rate, but then

  since seven of you would be there, you have to give me Rs. 10/-

  more."

 

  The Sardars agree and decide to take the taxi. The taxi driver takes

  them to Rashtrapati Bhavan. The meter shows Rs. 18/-, so the taxi

  driver says, "You have to pay me Rs. 28/-."

 

   Now, the Sardars have to share the cost among themselves and so they

   decide to divide the total (Rs. 28/-) by the number of people, i.e.  7.

   This is how they do the calculation to arrive at the answer:

           ____

         7 | 28   = 13                 ( 7 x 1 = 7, 7 x 3 = 21  ).

              7

            --

             21

             21

             --

              0

             --



   The driver (naturally) is exceedingly happy upon receiving Rs. 13/-

  from each of the Sardars. He thanks them profusely and the feeling of

  exultant happiness is writtern on his face as he leaves them and

  proceeds his way.



   Seeing this, the Sardars feel that they may have made a mistake. They

   decide to ask Zail Singh about it. After all, the fellow was the

  President of the nation! After all the initial formalities are

  completed, they ask Zail Singh to check their calculation of the

  taxi  fare. Zail Singh ponders over the calculations and finally says,

  "See, I am not good at division. The process just boggles me but

  addition is something I am an expert at. Let us add all the amounts

   you guys gave to the taxi driver and check the result. This is how I  

 do  for those tax forms I get very often.

   The process is slow but is sure." The other sardars nod their heads

  (?) in appreciation.

 

   The President writes as shown below and also explains as he writes

  on:

 

                      13

                      13

                      13

                      13

                      13

                      13

                      13

                      --

                      28

                      --

     i.e. 3+3+3+3+3+3+3= 21 and 21+1+1+1+1+1+1+1=28 so this

   checks out.   He then says, "Yes, it's correct. But I can also 

call my close  friend and Finance man Manmohan Singh. 

It is always better that he rechecks  it. After all, he is a Finance man,

 you know!" Manmohan Singh arrives,   and when told of the problem,

 he replies that he doesn't think it is  a bad deal but says, "No problem! 

I will verify it via mathematical  computation.   I'll verify it with

 multiplication. That is the best   technique for  this, you see!"

 

  While others watch in admiration, Manmohan Singh goes on to write as

  shown:

 

                               13

                               x7

                              ---

                               21

                                7

                               --

                               28        This checks out as well.

                               --

 

 

 

   Then he says, "This is really fine. There should be no problem,

   President   Sahab. After all, it is correct in all the methods."

   Peace reigns at the President's residence as the inhabitants and

  guests remain in quite contentedness while they reminisce about their

  astute abilities on solving a problem in a successful fashion.