## 27. Retribution

- The Mock Turtle must be a terrible schemer, observed Alice. - He always tries to arrange things so that he gets more!
- Usually he does act that way, agreed the Griffin, - but once the March Hare and Dormouse got their revenge! That time, the Mock Turtle, as usual, was setting the table and put all the biscuits on his own plate, leaving nothing for the March Hare or the Dormouse. The table was set on the lawn, and when the Mock Turtle went into the house to brew the tea, the March Hare quickly grabbed five sixteenths of the biscuits from the plate and ate them. Then the Dormouse ate seven elevenths of the remaining biscuits. The Mock Turtle was left with eight biscuits.

How many biscuits did the March Hare and the Dormouse eat separately?
27. Retribution. After the March Hare ate $5 / 16$ of the gingerbread cookies, there were "1/16" left on the plate. Sonya ate $7 / 11$ of the remaining cookies, which is $7 / 11$ of $11 / 16$. Since $7 / 11 \cdot 11 / 16 = 7 / 16$, Sonya ate $7 / 16$ of all the cookies. Together with the March Hare, who ate ${ }^{5} / 16$ of all the cookies, they ate $7 / 16 + 5 / 16 = 12 / 16$, or $12 / 16$ of all the cookies. They left $4 / 16$, or $1 / 4$, of the cookies for the Fool. Since the Fool received 8 cookies, these 8 cookies make up $1 / 4$ of all the cookies. Therefore, there were 32 cookies in total. From 32 cookies, $1 / 16$ is 2 cookies, and $5 / 16$ is 10 cookies. Therefore, the March Hare ate 10 cookies, after which 22 cookies remained on the plate. Then Sonya ate $7 / 11$ of the 22 remaining cookies, which is 14 cookies (since $1 / 11$ of 22 cookies is 2 cookies, and $7 / 11$ is 14 cookies). 8 cookies remained on the plate for the Fool, so everything adds up.