For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
Can you guess the requirements of this puzzle? Let us split everybody up. There is one man who went traveling so he left it all to his servants. Well actually, he did not leave it all to them. He put it in a trust which is strictly different. Should this man ever return he will want his stuff back with interest.
Servant one: 5 talents
Servant two: 2 talents
Servant three: 1 talent
Five and two and one makes a sum of eight in all. Count it on your fingers if you have to, but I do not think that will be strictly necessary. Then comes the date of the masters return. You might wonder what happened when he met his three servants once again.
16 Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.
Five and five makes ten in all.
17 And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
Two and two talents makes it four.
18 But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.
One talent is hidden with nothing added thereunto. One with a zero added to it is still effectively one.
19 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
I reckon I would too if I had people like that.
20 And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
Alright, how many times do you see five talents mentioned? It should be four. If I have counted right that servant should have twenty talents. If not, we would just say he is repeating himself and make it ten.
21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
22 He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.
I see two talents repeated three times. That makes six in sum. If two talents is twice repeated, there should be four.
23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
24 Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
The Book of the Generation of Jesus Christ 25:14-25
Right, here is the man with one talent. It does not matter how much he says it. This man has not gained anything else. All thats left is just the one talent for the master to take. What would it be if I wanted to add them all up? The master should have had eight talents at first because thats what five and two and one makes. At the last he should have had twenty talents and six and one. That makes it twenty-seven. If not, and things are just repeated there would be seventeen because of the ten and six and one. Next time, we would see some less fearsome sums.
Servant one:
5 talents
5 talents
5 talents
5 talents
Sum: 20 talents
Servant two:
2 talents
2 talents
2 talents
Sum: 6 talents
Servant three: 1 talent
Sum of all servants: 27 talents
Do you know how much the master gained? To find that you will need to subtract the sum of all talents from his initial investment. That would make it look something like this.
Sum of all servants: 27 talents
Sum of investment: --8 talents
(cross out the two, make that one; add a one to the seven column up top to make it seventeen)
(now subtract 8 from 17) (you should have 7)
(put the seven in the righthand column under the line for the answer) (now move on to the second row where you have one minus nothing or zero)
(bring the one down and put it in the lefthand place under the line in front of the 7)
Sum gained: 17 talents