Are You Stealing My Spoons?
Every minute Lobelia and Otho Sackville-Baggins steal one silver spoon from Bilbo Baggin's kitchen. But every eight minutes, the unsuspecting Bilbo returns to the kitchen and then immediately leaves. When Lobelia and Otho see Bilbo they become afraid and give back part of their spoons. If they have an even number of spoons they return half, and if they have an odd number of spoons they return one. How many spoons will they have stolen in an hour?
Details & Assumptions:
For example, in eight minutes, they will have stolen 8 spoons, but then they will give away half and have only 4 spoons remaining.
The answer is 17.
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A nicer question perhaps would have been number of spoons after, say, 5 hours. The interesting thing which happens at 72 minutes is they again have 14 spoons: so the numbers 14,11,18,13,20 cycle.