The Flowers

Puzzle:

In a small town, there are three temples in a row and a well in front of each temple. A pilgrim came to the town with certain number of flowers.

Before entering the first temple, he washed all the flowers he had with the water of well. To his surprise, flowers doubled. He offered few flowers to the God in the first temple and moved to the second temple. Here also, before entering the temple he washed the remaining flowers with the water of well. And again his flowers doubled. He offered few flowers to the God in second temple and moved to the third temple. Here also, his flowers doubled after washing them with water. He offered few flowers to the God in third temple.

There were no flowers left when pilgrim came out of third temple and he offered same number of flowers to the God in all three temples. What is the minimum number of flowers the pilgrim had initially? How many flower did he offer to each God?

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Solution:

The pilgrim had 7 flowers, initially and he offered 8 flowers to each God.

Assume that the pilgrim had X flowers initially and he offered Y flowers to each God. From the data in puzzle, there are (8X - 7Y) flowers when the pilgrim came out of the third temple. But it is given that there were no flowers left when he came out of third temple. It means that

(8X - 7Y) = 0 or 8X = 7Y

The minimum values of X and Y are 7 and 8 respectively to satisfy above equation. Hence, the pilgrim had 7 flowers and he offered 8 flowers to each God.

In general, the pilgrim had 7N flowers initially and he offered 8N flowers to each God, where N = 1, 2, 3, 4,