The traditional understanding of this rhyme is that only "one" is going to St. Ives—the narrator. All of the others are coming "from" St. Ives. The trick is that the listener assumes that all of the others must be totaled up, forgetting that only the narrator is said to be going "to" St. Ives. If everyone mentioned in the riddle were bound for St. Ives, then the number would be 2,802: the narrator, the man and his seven wives, 49 sacks, 343 cats, and 2,401 kits.