Camel and Bananas
A camel must transport 3000 bananas across a desert to an oasis 1000 km away. It can carry at most 1000 bananas at a time and eats one banana per kilometre travelled. What is the maximum number of bananas that can reach the oasis?
The camel may drop bananas anywhere in the desert and walk back for more: intermediate caches are allowed, and it eats one banana per kilometre in both directions. Head straight out with 1,000 bananas and it has eaten all 1,000 on arrival, so nothing reaches the oasis.
Need a hint?
Think about shuttling bananas in stages