Three bucket water puzzle You have three buckets, two big buckets holding 8 litres of water each and one small empty bucket that can hold 3 litres of water. How will you split the 16 litres of water to four people evenly? Each person has a container but once water is distributed to someone it cannot be taken back. 
In this puzzle, we need to allocate 4 litres to each person. So I considered the initial state as below 

8 8 0 [0, 0, 0, 0]

The values in the bracket are the water given to those 4 people.
I tried the below steps 

5 8 3 [0, 0, 0, 0] 
  5 8 0 [3, 0, 0, 0] 
  5 5 3 [3, 0, 0, 0] 
  5 5 0 [3, 3, 0, 0] 
  2 8 0 [3, 3, 0, 0] 
  0 8 2 [3, 3, 0, 0] 
  0 7 3 [3, 3, 0, 0] 
  0 4 3 [3, 3, 3, 0] 
  0 1 3 [3, 3, 3, 3] 
  0 0 3 [4, 3, 3, 3] 

But I couldnt take it further by giving those 1 litre for rest of the 3 persons since there is a constraint that water given to person cant be retrieved back. 
Any help/hint towards final solution is greatly appreciated.
 A: 8 8 0 [0 0 0 0]
8 5 3 [0 0 0 0]
8 5 0 [3 0 0 0]
8 2 3 [3 0 0 0]
8 0 3 [3 2 0 0]
8 3 0 [3 2 0 0]
5 3 3 [3 2 0 0]
5 6 0 [3 2 0 0]
2 6 3 [3 2 0 0]
2 8 1 [3 2 0 0]
2 8 0 [3 2 1 0]
0 8 2 [3 2 1 0]
0 7 3 [3 2 1 0]
3 7 0 [3 2 1 0]
3 4 3 [3 2 1 0]
6 4 0 [3 2 1 0]
6 1 3 [3 2 1 0]
6 0 3 [3 2 1 1]
8 0 1 [3 2 1 1]
8 0 0 [4 2 1 1]
5 0 3 [4 2 1 1]
5 3 0 [4 2 1 1]
2 3 3 [4 2 1 1]
0 3 3 [4 4 1 1]
0 0 3 [4 4 4 1]
0 0 0 [4 4 4 4]

A: Here is a solution using 24 steps (one fewer than joriki's solution). I believe this is minimal, since I wrote a shortest path algorithm to find it:
8 8 0 [0 0 0 0]
8 5 3 [0 0 0 0]
8 5 0 [3 0 0 0]
8 2 3 [3 0 0 0]
8 0 3 [3 2 0 0]
8 3 0 [3 2 0 0]
5 3 3 [3 2 0 0]
5 6 0 [3 2 0 0]
2 6 3 [3 2 0 0]
2 8 1 [3 2 0 0]
2 8 0 [4 2 0 0]
2 5 3 [4 2 0 0]
0 7 3 [4 2 0 0]
3 7 0 [4 2 0 0]
3 4 3 [4 2 0 0]
6 4 0 [4 2 0 0]
6 1 3 [4 2 0 0]
8 1 1 [4 2 0 0]
8 1 0 [4 2 1 0]
5 1 3 [4 2 1 0]
5 1 0 [4 2 4 0]
2 1 3 [4 2 4 0]
0 1 3 [4 4 4 0]
0 4 0 [4 4 4 0]
0 0 0 [4 4 4 4]

A: Above can be completed in 13 steps:

8,8,0[0,0,0,0]
8,5,3[0,0,0,0]
8,5,0[3,0,0,0]
5,5,3[3,0,0,0]
5,5,0[3,3,0,0]
5,2,3[3,3,0,0]
5,2,0[3,3,3,0]
5,0,2[3,3,3,0]
4,0,3[3,3,3,0]
0,0,3[3,3,3,4]
0,0,2[4,3,3,4]
0,0,1[4,4,3,4]
0,0,0[4,4,4,4]
