4 thieves rob a bakery of the bread one after the other. Each thief takes half of what is present & half a bread. If at the end 3 bread remains, what is the number of bread that was present initially?

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sachin kumar rai

  • Aug 6th, 2005
 

according to my calc. the no. of breads = 64

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Sheetal Salunkhe

  • Nov 21st, 2005
 

initially the breads should be 48. first thief took 24  of 48 second one took 12 of 24 third one have took 6 of 12 then remains 3 breads.

sunita

  • Dec 20th, 2005
 

ans:

it will be 63

procedure:

let initially der are x breads

1st thief takes=x/2 +1/2   ,so remaining=x-(x/2+1/2)=x/2-1/2

2nd thief takes=1/2+1/2*(x/2-1/2)=1/2+x/4-1/4=x/4+1/4 so remain=x/2-1/2-x/4-1/4=x/4-3/4

3rd thief takes=1/2 +1/2*(x/4-3/4)=1/2+x/8-3/8=x/8+1/8 so remain=x/4-3/4-x/8-1/8=x/8-7/8

4th thief takes=1/2+1/2*(x/8-7/8)=1/2+x/16-7/16=x/16+1/16 so remain=x/8-7/8-x/16-1/16=x/16-15/16

so x/16-15/16=3

x=48+15=63(ans)

 

jaspreet(jagz)

  • Feb 19th, 2006
 

63( ( ( ( X/2-B/2 )/2 -B/2 )/2 -B/2 ) /2 -B/2 ) =3B=>( X-15B) /16 =3B==>X=63B

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HEMANTHKUMAR VARADHARAJAN

  • Jun 20th, 2006
 

Let the no. of breads initially present be x.Then1 st thief takes x/22 nd thief takes x/43 rd thief takes x/84th thief takes x/16.Remaining = 3 breadsEquating x/2 + x/4 + x/8 + x/16 + 3 = x(15x + 48)/16 = x15x + 48 = 16x=> x = 48The number of breads initially present were 48.

amateur

  • Aug 7th, 2006
 

Ans : 48

Let Total no of breads be X.

=> 1st Thief took X/2 remaining X/2

=> 2nd Thief took 1/2 * X/2 = X/4 remaining X/2-X/4= X/4

=> 3rd Thief took 1/2 * X/4 = X/8 remaining X/4-X/8=X/8

=> 4th Thief took 1/2 * X/8 = X/16 remaining X/8-X/16=X/16

Now its given that remaining bread = 3

Therefore X/16=3

=> X = 48

Ans = 48.

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maximus

  • Oct 25th, 2006
 

63

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Pooja

  • Dec 1st, 2006
 

The answer should be 48.

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Jekin

  • Jun 30th, 2007
 

should be 63. the ones who think it's 48 didn't take half bread into consideration.

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puspanjali

  • Aug 27th, 2007
 

if the  total no of bread is=x


then the first thieves is stolen           :(x/2+1/2)

2nd thieves is stolen half of the
present bread and half of the bread   :(1/2(x/2+1/2)+1/2)


3rd                                                       :(1/2(1/2(x/2+1/2)+1/2)+1/2)

4th                                                        :(1/2(1/2(1/2(x/2+1/2)+1/2)+1/2)+1/2)


which is => 3(the remaining bread)=(1/2(1/2(1/2(x/2+1/2)+1/2)+1/2)+1/2)

               => x=36

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mohdriz_ibm

  • Jul 21st, 2008
 

Last theif took 3 breads.
third one took 6,
second one took 12,
first one took 24 i.e. Half of the total breads
    So, Answer is 48 breads..

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jasdeep1111

  • Jul 24th, 2009
 

Definitely the ans is 63 because:
last time the bread left is 3 now we know that this comes when 4th theif took half of the remaining bread left by 3rd and 1/2 more, so reverse the process, add 12 to 3 that makes 72. and then multiply by 2. this will be 7 so 7 will be left by 3rd thief , now again reverse. 2(7+12) = 15 . do this 2 more times and the ans will come as 63 for last time,

NOTE: THis will be the minimum breads present originals

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keesh

  • Oct 26th, 2009
 

Am sorry to say, none of you read the question fully,

"The thieves took half of what is present and also HALF A BREAD"

so 3*2*2*2*2 + halfbread*no.of thieves
 = 48 + 2
 = 50 

correct me if i am wrong.

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uma

  • Jan 4th, 2015
 

a woman goes to company 6 days in aweek the bus fare for her 1 day journey is 0.2$,and on every saturday she uses her car to go to office and the expenditure is 3$ how much will be rise of her total expenditure for a week if she uses car to go

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sandeep roy

  • Jan 6th, 2015
 

50 breads total.

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