# A farmer has 17 sheep, and all but 9 run away. How many are left?

Source: https://silverapuzzles.com/riddles/a-farmer-has-17-sheep-and-all-but-9-run-away-how-many-are-left

A word problem with a phrase that means the opposite of what it seems to say. If you treat it as arithmetic you will subtract when you should simply read.

**Answer:** Nine.

“All but 9” means 9 of them stayed.

Hint: Read “all but” slowly.

## How to think about it

1. The eye catches 17 and 9 and wants to compute 17 − 9 = 8.
2. Look at the exact phrase: “all but 9 run away”. “All but” means “all except”.
3. So every sheep except 9 ran off. The 9 are the ones that did not run.
4. Nine sheep are left; the 8 that ran away are gone.

## Why “Nine” is the answer

The phrase “all but 9” means that 9 sheep stayed and the rest left, so 9 remain. The subtraction 17 − 9 = 8 gives the number that ran away, which is the opposite of what the question asks. Once you translate “all but” into “except”, the arithmetic becomes unnecessary.

## Common wrong answers

- **Eight.** Eight is how many ran away, not how many stayed.
- **Seventeen.** That would mean none ran away, but the riddle says all but nine did.