Did You Find Out? Get the Answer to the Riddle of E-News Issue No. 3, July 2023

To the delight of the May family, it is once again cherry season. Since Mrs. May’s three children love to eat cherries, she gets a large bowl of cherries and places it on the kitchen table. Next to the bowl, she leaves a note saying that each of the children may take a third of the cherries.

Julia comes home first and eats four cherries directly from the bowl before seeing the note next to it. After eating the four cherries, she takes a third of the remaining cherries. Tom, the second child to come home, thinks he is the first of his siblings to take cherries from the bowl. He first takes a single cherry and then takes a third of the remaining cherries. Fiona is the last to come home, but she also thinks she is the first to arrive. She takes two cherries first and then a third of the remaining cherries. When Mrs. May comes home that evening, she is surprised that only 48 of the cherries were eaten.

How many cherries were originally in the bowl?