Professor Neuron and his nephew Trifle have been out in the garden collecting berries. The professor has picked a number of strawberries while young Trifle has brought back a smaller number of blackberries. The sum of their two numbers, for those who take delight in such matters, is seven times their primenumber difference.
Now, while the professor isn’t looking, Trifle creeps into his study and steals a number of his strawberries. However the professor is very perceptive, tiptoes into Trifle’s room, and pockets some of his blackberries. Neuron now decides to confront Trifle in the form of a poser.
“If I take twice the number of berries of any type I now have, and add three times the number that is 26 less than the number you have just taken, then that would amount to 2 less than the number of any type that you now have. So, how many would that be?”