Every morning, Carla puts 79 apples in her backpack to eat for lunch. Unfortunately, Buffy stole some of Carla's apples on the school bus, and 26 apples fell out of a hole on the bottom. So at lunchtime, Carla only had 8 apples remaining. How many apples did Buffy steal from Carla?
Step-by-step reasoning:
45
Let B be the number of apples that Buffy stole.

Then 79 - B - 26 = 8.

Combining constants produces 53 - B = 8.

Adding B to both sides produces 52 = B + 8.

Thus the number of apples stolen by Buffy is B = 53 - 8 = 45.

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So, the answer is 45