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?
(1) 38 (2) 31 (3) 41 (4) None of these

Answer 1

Answer:

correct answer will be (4) None of these

Step-by-step explanation:

Starting from the last, The bowl had 17 mints left after eswari put back 2 mints

=> mints left after eswari took half = 17 - 2 = 15

=> mints left before eswari took half = 15 x 2 = 30

Now the bowl had 30 mints after fatima put back 3 mints

=> Mints left after fatima took 1/4th = 30 - 3 = 27

=> Mints left before fatima took 1/4th = 27 x 4/3 = 36

Now the bowl had 36 mints after sita put back 4 mints

=> Mints left after sita took 1/3rd = 36 - 4 = 32

=> Mints left before sita took 1/3rd = 32 x 3/2 = 48

Hence the original number of mints were 48

So correct answer will be (4) None of these

Answer 2

Answer will non of these( iv)