A country "grocer and draper" had two rival assistants, who prided themselves on their rapidity in serving customers.
The young man on the grocery side could weigh up two one-pound parcels of sugar per minute, while the drapery assistant could cut three one-yard lengths of cloth in the same time.
Their employer, one slack day, set them a race, giving the grocer a barrel of sugar and telling him to weigh up forty-eight one-pound parcels of sugar.
While the draper divided a roll of forty-eight yards of cloth into yard pieces.
The two men were interrupted together by customers for nine minutes, but the draper was disturbed seventeen times as long as the grocer.
What was the result of the race?