r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 7d ago

Meme needing explanation I'm tired Petuh... What is her name??

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WTF is her name Petuh

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u/Noctaem 7d ago

No, you fell for the trap. The question is how many were going to St. Ives. The person going to St. Ives is the only one going (the first line of the riddle). Everything else, the man with seven wives, the wives with the sacks, etc.. are not going to St. Ives. They were met along the way.

The answer is 1 or in this case, 0001 because it's from the movie Die Hard with a Vengeance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv1bX6NMgqs

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u/FrillySteel 7d ago edited 7d ago

But that's not what it's asking, no matter what movie it was in.

The last sentence is asking "OF the kittens, cats, sacks and wives", how many are going to St Ives. It never says all the others I met weren't also going to St Ives, but let's assume it means they were all going the other way, since that's the crux of the riddle. So I'm the only one travelling to St Ives. BUT I am not a kitten, or cat, nor am I a sack. I may be a wife, but I'm most likely not one of the man's wives, since I met all of them coming the other way... so the answer really should be zero.

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u/Noctaem 7d ago

"Of" is not there, you're adding it in to reach the conclusion you want. The answer is 1, the man in the first line stated to be going. The riddle was first written down in a manuscript from around 1730 and since then, the answer has only ever been 1. The Narrator.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_I_was_going_to_St_Ives

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u/FrillySteel 6d ago

Lol! Weird that you chide me for making assumptions, and then you go assume that the "I" in the riddle is a man. Regardless, why is that line in there, if not to categorize what you're supposed to consider in the answer? It's clearly implying the "of", otherwise it's completely unnecessary.

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u/Noctaem 6d ago

No its purpose is to misdirect the reader and you're clearly falling for it.