document.write( "Question 271715: A thief steals a number of rare plants from a nursery. On his way out, the thief meets three security guards, one after another. To each security guard the thief is forced to give one-half the plants that he still has, plus two more. Finally, the thief leaves the nursery with no plants. How many plants were originally stolen? \n" ); document.write( "
Algebra.Com's Answer #198866 by solver91311(24713)\"\" \"About 
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "He gave the last guard everything, which was half of what he had plus 2. So 2 had to be the other half of what he had -- hence he had 4 when he met the last guard. The guard before then got 2 more than half, so half must have been 6, and he had 12 after his encounter with the first guard. 12 plus 2 is 14, times 2 is 28 which is the number he had at the start.\r
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