[Rupak Majumdar told me this intriguing puzzle.]

You have 3000 bananas that you want to transport a distance of 1000 km. The transport will be done by a monkey. The monkey can carry as many as 1000 bananas at any one time. With each kilometer traveled (forward or backward), the money consumes 1 banana. How many bananas can you get across to the other side?

August 2011