Riddle: Ten Pirates and their Gold
Ten pirates find a buried treasure of 100 pieces of gold.
The pirates have a strict ranking in their group: Pirate 1 is the lead pirate, Pirate 2 is second-in-command, Pirate 3 is the third most powerful pirate, and so on.
Based on this ranking, the pirates decide on a system to determine how to split up the 100 pieces of gold. The lead pirate (Pirate 1) will propose a way to divy it up. Then all the pirates (including the lead pirate) will vote on that proposal. If 50% or more of the pirates agree on the system, then that is how the gold will be divied up. However, if less than 50% of the pirates vote for the proposal, then the lead pirate will be be killed. The next-most powerful pirate will then become the lead pirate, and they'll restart the process (Pirate 2 will suggest a way to divy up the gold and it will be voted on by the rest of the pirates). This will keep going on until finally a proposal is agreed upon.
All of the pirates are very smart and very greedy. Each pirate will vote against a proposal if they know that they would end up with more gold if that proposal were to fail. A pirate also will never vote for a proposal that gives him 0 pieces of gold.
You are Pirate 1. You must come up with a proposal that will give you as much gold as possible, without getting yourself killed. Keep in mind that the rest of the pirates all know that if your proposal fails, then Pirate 2 will succeed at coming up with a plan that benefits him the most while not getting him killed.
What's your proposal?
Try this exact same riddle if there were only 2 pirates. Once you've figured that out, try it again for 3 pirates. Then for 4. You should start to see a pattern emerge.