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Question:

Three friends, returning from a movie, stopped to eat at a restaurant. After dinner, they paid their bill and noticed a bowl of mints at the front counter. Sita took 1/3 of the mints, but returned four because she had a momentary pang of guilt. Fatima then took 1/4 of what was left but returned three for similar reasons. Eswari then took half of the remainder but threw two back into the bowl. The bowl had only 17 mints left when the raid was over. How many mints were originally in the bowl?

Explanation:

Sita takes 1/3rd of the total mints which implies that the total number of mints in the bowl should be a multiple of 3. None of the options is a multiple of 3.

Hence, option (d).

Alternatively

This problem can be best solved by working backwards.

Number of mints before Eswari = (17 − 2) × 2 = 30

∴ Number of mints before a Fatima = $\frac{(30 - 3) \times 4}{3} = 36$

∴ Number of mints before Sita = $\frac{(36 - 4) \times 3}{2} = 48$

∴ Total number of mints in the bowl = 48

Hence, option (d).

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