Another Mind Boggler

[gazzawazza]

'What we caught, we threw away, what we couldn't catch, we kept.'

Does anyone know, or can anyone work out the answer to this riddle? Beware... It's a very old one, which is actually supposed to have sent a famous egyptian scholar mad!!!

[Quizmonster]

Lice, perhaps?

[gazzawazza]

Very good Quizmonster!!!

[Cetti]

......or fleas!

[gazzawazza]

Yes Cetti, you're correct too, in fact "fleas" was the original answer but I thought "lice" was too close to go splitting hairs over!

[xyzzyplugh]

Also winnowing; they catch the chaff and throw it away, the grain which slips through the 'riddle' is what they keep.

[Quizmonster]

I suspect you've got the winnowing process in reverse, Xyz. A mixture of grain and chaff is thrown in the air so that the breeze will carry the - much lighter - chaff aside, whilst the heavier grain falls back. It's the grain that lands in the riddle and gets "kept", after any dust or tiny chaff-particles have fallen through it.

[xyzzyplugh]

oh, yeah.:-|

[Steelie2006]

hey! Quizmonster and gazzawazza!

You're both wrong!

The answer is NOTHING

they cought -nothing- so they threw it away

when they didnt catch -nothing- (i.e. they cought something) they kept it.

yeah.

~Steelie~

[Steelie2006]

by the way... in addition to my above answer...

imagine they are hunting or fishing at the time

it makes sense

~Steelie~