One night a thief sneaks into your house and steals some of the twinkie supply from your vault. They take a half of your twinkies, and (because they are mean) they take 8 more for spite. The next night, they come back and take a half of what is left. As they are leaving, they feel a little remorse and decide to put 8 twinkies back. When you're counting your twinkies the next morning, to your dismay you discover there are only 15 twinkies left! How many twinkies did you have before the thief came the first night?

(A) Let x = the number of twinkies you had initially. Write an equation that describes what happened:

       

(B) How many twinkies did you have before the thief came to your house?   twinkies