May 2017
Problem of the Month
The Three Thieves
contributed by Jim Hooker
Three thieves stole a bag of jewels from a Jewelry store late one evening. That night they decided to split their ill-gotten cache the next morning for obvious reasons.
During the night the first thief woke up and took the bag of jewels and split it three ways with one jewel left over, he took a third of the split and discarded the extra jewel.
He returned the remainder of the jewels to the bag and went back to sleep.
Some time later the second thief woke up, took the bag, split the jewels three ways and had one extra with which he discarded. He took a third of the split and returned the remainder to the bag,
then went to sleep.
Just a bit later the third thief woke up and finding the others sound asleep, took the bag and split it three ways and had one extra jewel. He took a third, discarded the one jewel and
returned the rest to the bag.
The next morning they eagerly split the jewels in the bag three ways and finding one extra, they agreed to discard it.
Happily they went their separate ways.
How many jewels were stolen? How many jewels did each thief leave with?