THE CANTERBURY PUZZLES
problems and ideas that passed through his active brain. When the
pilgrims were stopping at a wayside tavern, a number of cheeses of
varying sizes caught his alert eye, and calling for four stools he told
the company that he would show them a puzzle of his own that
would keep them amused during their rest. He then placed eight
cheeses of graduating sizes on one of the end stools, the smallest
cheese being at the top, as clearly shown in the illustration. " This
is a riddle," quoth he, " that I did once set before my fellow towns-
men at Baldeswell, that is in Norfolk, and, by Saint Joce, there was
no man among them that could rede it aright. And yet it is withal
full easy, for all that I do desire is that by the moving of one cheese
at a time from one stool unto another, ye shall remove all the cheeses
to the stool at the other end without ever putting any cheese on one
that is smaller than itself. To him that will perform this feat in the
least number of moves that be possible will I give a draught of
the best that our good host can provide." To solve this puzzle in
the fewest possible moves, first with 8, then with 10, and afterwards
with 21 cheeses, is an interesting recreation.
2
