How many apples were in the crate originally?

Question

During a recent expedition, three intrepid adventurers were left stranded in the middle of the desert with only a crate full of apples. During the night, Aakash woke up and decided to hide his share of apples and hid a third, then promptly fell asleep again. Bhavesh woke up shortly after and also decided to hide a third of the remaining apples and he also dozed back to sleep. Finally, Himanshu woke up and seeing the others were asleep, took a third of what was left. Of course none of the adventurers knew the other's antics, so, in the morning, they shared the remaining apples, each receiving sixteen.
How many apples were in the crate originally?

Answer 1

Answer: 162.
Aakash hid 54, leaving 108. Bhavesh hid 36, leaving 72. Himanshu hid 24, leaving 48. 48 apples were then available to share in the morning.

To work these numbers out, we start at the end and work backwards.

At the end there were 16 apples each, therefore there were 48 apples.

Charles removed 1÷3 leaving 48, so there must have been 72 apples before he did this.

Bhavesh removed 1÷3 leaving 72, so there must have been 108 apples before he did this.

Aakash removed 1÷3 leaving 108, so there must have been 162 apples before he did this.