Four friends stopped to eat at a restaurant. After dinner, they paid their bill and noticed a bowl of candy on the counter.

Megan starts by taking two pieces of candy, but then goes back for more and grabs a seventh of the candy remaining.
Brett took a third of the remaining candy, but returned four because he had a momentary pang of guilt.
Alex then took a fourth of what was left, but returned three for similar reasons.
Evan then took half of the remaining candy, but threw two that looked like they had been slobbered on back into the bowl.
The bowl had only 17 pieces of candy left when the raid was over. How many pieces of candy were originally in the bowl?

3 answers

Would the answer be 58?

Let x be the number of pieces to start
Megan takes 2 + 1/7 (x-2), leaving x - (2 + (x-2)/7) = (6x-12)/7
Bret took 1/3 * (6x-12)/7 - 4, leaving 2/3 (6x-12)/7 + 4 = (4x+20)/7
Alex took 1/4 (4x+20)/7 - 3, leaving 3/4 (4x+20)/7 + 3 = (3x+36)/7
Evan took 1/2 (3x+36)/7 - 2, leaving 1/2 (3x+36)/7 + 2 = (3x+64)/14
so, now we know that
(3x+64)/14 = 17
solve for x, and check to make sure things work out.

58 is correct.