Place twelve plates, as shown, on a round table, with a penny or orange in every plate. 
Start from any plate you like and, always going in one direction round the table, take up one penny, pass it over two other pennies, and place it in the next plate. 
Go on again; take up another penny and, having passed it over two pennies, place it in a plate; and so continue your journey. 
Six coins only are to be removed, and when these have been placed there should be two coins in each of six plates and six plates empty. 
An important point of the puzzle is to go round the table as few times as possible. 
It does not matter whether the two coins passed over are in one or two plates, nor how many empty plates you pass a coin over. But you must always go in one direction round the table and end at the point from which you set out. 
Your hand, that is to say, goes steadily forward in one direction, without ever moving backwards.