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Raphael's Dilemma:
I managed to find one solution in 11 moves myself, and another one with the help of a program (I'm attaching it to the message; it's in Python and generates relatively short random solutions for different numbers of moves). Maybe someone will find it amusing to play around with it. I couldn't find a solution in 9 moves.
Logic suggests that there is some logic to it. We have three people and four items. Each turn, we move 2 of something across, but we return 1 person (at least) on the next turn.
Therefore, the optimal strategy looks like this:
-2
+1
-2
+1
-2
+1
-2
+1
-2
+1
-2
Then we get -7 of something on one side and +7 on the other. That's why it's still unclear.