we were discussing this in work today - the riddle i mean
& decided it is a very unsatisfactory situation & solution.

for starters you have polygamy with the man we meet having seven wives, then you have the physical impossibiity of each wife carrying approx ½ ton of cat in bags (49 cats, 343 kittens each)

then you have no idea how they come to meet, given the troupe of cat carriers are carrying about so much weight with them they are likely to be going very slowly so you could easily have caught them up. also could have met at a picnic area or something, so it would be false to assume that they were not going to st ives

but then given how ridiculous it would be to carry so much cat around, do we know the man we meet is actually with his seven wives? they could be at home, it just says we meet a man with seven wives.

& how many are in our party?
it's all wrong, we need more definites.

what have you talked baout in work?
(yeah tl;dr)