Inheritance

A Wise Man and some Camels (35)

A wise man is riding his camel through the desert, when he comes across three brothers.  The brothers' father has recently died, and in his will he left his camels to his sons, in the following proportions. 1/2 of the camels would go to the eldest son, 1/3 would go to the middle son, and 1/9 would go the youngest.  The rub being that the father owned 17 camels.  17 of course, not dividing evenly.  The wise man quickly exclaimed, "This is easy," and solved their conundrum.  Each brother ended up with the correct amount of camels, and the wise man rode off into the desert.  How did he do it, if no adding or removing of camels is allowed (no cutting camels into half either).

Once again, email the answer to RudraighS@gmail.com