Logical Riddle: Equal Distribution of the Stolen Diamonds

Use your logical and mathematical skills to solve this riddle.

7 thieves rob a diamond merchant of some diamonds.

They return to their den and go off to sleep.


But when they divided the diamonds equally, one diamond is left.

So they woke up the 3rd thief and tried to divide the diamonds equally again but still one diamond was left.

Then they woke up the 4th thief to divide the diamonds equally again, and again one diamond was left.

This happened with the 5th and 6th thief – one diamond was still left.

Finally, they woke up the 7th thief and this time the diamonds were divided equally.

How many diamonds did they steal in total?



4 Replies to “Logical Riddle: Equal Distribution of the Stolen Diamonds”

  1. There are multiple answers but I think 301 is the lowest and then 301 + 60*7 though I can’t quite figure out why that seems to work. 14 is even, so no go on 2. 21 is divisible by 3, 35 is the first number that would work for 2 and 3, then the first number where 4 also works would be 49, then the first number that 5 also works would be 301. (49*6+7). But that was just a brute force method. adding larger and larger sums. What’s the algebra/formula solution?

Leave a Reply