Oops, sorry everyone. I got out of school a bit later than expected and then I went off to get a haircut, lol.Sapphire Titan said:
I guess that one was much too difficult, here's the answer: (get ready:P)
Pirate E should propose to give two coins to pirate A (or B), one coin to pirate C, and the remaining 997 coins to himself. Why?
The idea behind the solution for this puzzle is that a pirate will accept a proposal only if he knows that in case he would not accept the proposal, he would get less of the treasure.
If pirate A is the only one left, he would get all the golden coins. If pirates A and B are the only ones left, pirate B would die for sure, since pirate A is bloodthirsty and will reject all proposals of pirate B (since he will get all coins anyway).
If pirates A, B, and C are the only ones left, C needs the agreement of one of the other two. Pirate B will agree with every proposal since, as we have seen, he would die if he didn't. So pirate C, since he is greedy, should propose to keep everything for himself.
If four pirates are left, pirate D needs to make two other pirates agree with his proposal. So he proposes to give one coin to pirate A, one coin to pirate B, and the rest to himself. Pirates A and B will accept the proposal, since they are greedy, and if they didn't accept, they would get less in the three-pirate scenario.
But as we know, there are five pirates. If pirate E gives both pirate A (or B) and pirate C one coin more than in the previous case, they are willing to accept the proposal. Then a majority (three out of five) of the pirates will support the proposal, and pirate E can keep the rest of the treasure for himself.
Therefore, pirate E should propose to give two coins to pirate A (or B), one coin to pirate C, and the remaining 997 coins to himself.
And now you know. Ok, I'm tired of posting riddles, I wanna answer some! Anyone?