Where this game comes from
The river crossing
A farmer with a wolf, a goat and a cabbage, and a boat that carries only one of them at a time, appears in a collection of puzzles called Problems to Sharpen the Young (Propositiones ad acuendos juvenes), from about the year 800.
One thing to hold: A boat with room for one more.
Why it matters: You cannot leave the wolf with the goat, or the goat with the cabbage — so the answer needs one trip that brings something back.
What we don’t know: The collection is credited to Alcuin of York, a teacher at Charlemagne’s court, but nobody is sure he wrote it.