A man would like to take a new health insurance. An officer taking care of these matters says to the man: "Please tell me how many children you have." The man answers: "I have three of them." The officer: "What are the ages of your children?". The man answers: "The product of the ages is equal to 36." The officer replies: "This is not enough information Sir!". "Sorry that I was a little bit unclear, but the sum of the ages is equal to the number of shops in front of your office," says the man. The officer: "This still isn't enough information Sir!". The man replies: "My oldest child loves chocolate." The officer: "Thanks for your cooperation, I now know the ages."
Are you as smart as the officer? Then give the ages of the children.

Four little gnomes are on one side of a scary wood. They have to travel through the wood to the other side. They can only do this safely if they have some light. Together they carry only one small candle. Unfortunately this candle only gives enough light for two gnomes. Some of the gnomes can walk faster than others. One of them can at fastest walk to the other side in 1 minute, one in 2 minutes, one in 5 minutes and the slow one in 10 minutes. If two gnomes are on the other side of the wood, one of course has to go back to bring the candle. If the gnomes go to the other side as quickly as possible, how much time does it take them in total?

How many characters does the right answer to this question have?