The riddle of the little shepherd boy

[timmy]

Many years ago, I met an old rancher in the boondocks of New Mexico. Like other folks in the increasingly disappearing rural areas of the world, he was a "salt of the earth" type, of which we wish for more and see too few. He was quite predominantly a Spanish-speaker, but sometimes, one encounters others who speak a "universal language," so we made ourselves understood to each other.

Here is his riddle. It's only a little simple bit of fun, and a great memory of a wonderful day I had, a long time ago.

There was a little shepherd boy on the side of the hill, watching his sheep.

A man came over the hill, and said to the little shepherd boy, "Ho, O shepherd of twenty!"

"Excuse me, sir," the little shepherd boy replied. "If I had again as many sheep as I now have, and then also half again as many more, only then would I be a shepherd of twenty."

So, after this story, the old rancher asked, "How many sheep did the little shepherd boy have?"

(The somewhat odd way that he spoke was due to his New Mexican Spanish dialect.)

[sfcabhishek]

Quite a nice riddle.

I think the shepherd has 8 sheep.
As, it says "half again as many more"

X is number of sheep the shepherd has,
Then, x + x + x/2 = 20

[Mr.Shome]

Lovely presentation. Yes, looks like 8 sheep.

Regards.

[timmy]

You gentlemen have it!

I also thought for a minute, and then said, "Eight."

The old rancher became very excited and pointed at me, exclaiming in broken English: "You! You know-a the algebra! You know-a the algebra!"

I admitted to a slight knowledge of algebra, and made some good friends that day.