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 one-third of the mints, but returned four because she had a momentary pang of guilt. Fatima then took one-fourth of what was left but returned three for similar reason. 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?

Solution

Let the total number of mints in the bowl be n
Sita took n/3 - 4. Remaining = 2n/3 + 4
Fatim took 1/4(2n/3 + 4) - 3. Remaining = 3/4(2n/3 + 4) + 3
Eswari took 1/2(3/4(2n/3+4)+3) - 2
Remaining = 1/2(3/4(2n/3+4)+3) + 2 = 17
=> 3/4(2n/3+4)+3 = 30 => (2n/3+4) = 36 => n = 48
So, the answer is option d)