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One day 3 fishermen came to fish on a tiny island surrounded by the sea. On the island there is a pond and the fishermen agreed to put all the fish caught in the sea into the pond. At the end of the fishing they would divide equally among themselves the fish in the pond. Each would take 1/3 of all the fish in the pond.
And so they fished and put all what they caught into the pond. After a while one of them got bored and decided to go home. He packed and went to the pond and counted the fish there. The total was not divisible by 3, so he took one fish from the pond and threw it out into the sea. Then he took 1/3 of the remaining fish in the pond and went home.
After a while the second fisherman got bored too and he also decided to stop fishing and go home. Not knowing that the first left he came to the pond, counted the fish and seeing that the total is not divisible by 3 he took one fish from the pond and threw it back into the sea. Now, he took 1/3 of all the remaining fish in the pond and went home.
Then the third fisherman decided to quit fishing and not knowing that the first two have already left he packed and went to the pond, counted the fish and found out that the total is not divisble by 3 and to make it divisible by 3 he discarded one of the pond fish throwing it back to the sea. Then he took 1/3 of the remaining fish and headed home.
Now, after the third fisherman left the pond the total number of the fish left in the pond is equal to the total when the first one approached to count the fish. And meanwhile no fresh fish have been caught and put into the pond.
The question is "How many fish are left in the pond?"
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