Unlucky thief

Algebra Level 2

A thief stole some mangoes from a garden. On his way back, he ran into the three watchmen of the garden one by one. He gave each of them half the mangoes he had plus 2 more (he met them one after the other). At the end he was left with just 1 mango. How many mangoes did he actually steal?


The answer is 36.

Anshil Yadav by Anshil Yadav , 25, India

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

2 solutions

Sandeep Kv
Aug 4, 2014

Let the total mangoes with him = X

He gives X 2 + 2 \frac {X}{2}+2 to watchman1 and left with X 2 − 2 \frac {X}{2}-2

Then he gives X 2 − 2 2 + 2 \frac {\frac {X}{2}-2}{2}+2 to watchman2 and left with X 2 − 2 2 − 2 \frac {\frac {X}{2}-2}{2}-2

Then he gives X 2 − 2 2 − 2 2 + 2 \frac {\frac {\frac {X}{2}-2}{2}-2}{2}+2 to watchman 3 and left with X 2 − 2 2 − 2 2 − 2 \frac {\frac {\frac {X}{2}-2}{2}-2}{2}-2

which is equal to 1 (given in the question)

So X 2 − 2 2 − 2 2 − 2 = 1 \frac {\frac {\frac {X}{2}-2}{2}-2}{2}-2=1 from this solve for X We get X = 36

2 Helpful 0 Interesting 0 Brilliant 0 Confused
Apoorv Padghan
Jul 31, 2014

First of all ....nice problem anshil !

the whole equation in a nutshell is - 

             \frac { \frac { \frac { x }{ 2 } -2 }{ 2 } -2 }{ 2 } -2\quad =\quad 1

evaluate and you get your answer.........

0 Helpful 0 Interesting 0 Brilliant 0 Confused

x 2 − 2 2 − 2 2 − 2 = 1 \frac { \frac {\frac {x} {2} -2} {2} -2} {2}-2\quad=\quad 1

Brett Hartley - 6 years, 9 months ago

Log in to reply

YEp .........that true

Apoorv Padghan - 6 years, 9 months ago

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...