One fine day, three friends, Barney the bear, Ruffo the dog and Max the mouse were playing on a hill in the forest. That hill was their favourite spot in the forest and they played there almost every day. The friends were thinking about what to play. Finally, Barney thought of a game, “Cricket” he exclaimed!

But Ruffo did not like the idea, because he thought that Max wouldn’t be able to play since he is small.

Barney said, “Max can be the umpire”. “That is a great idea, but it is up to Max if he wants to be the umpire or play something else,” Ruffo said.

“Of course! I would love to be the umpire” Max said.

While playing, Barney hit the ball too hard with the bat. The ball rolled all the way down the hill and went inside a cave.

“Sorry! I’m so sorry” Barney wailed.

“It’s alright,” Max and Ruffo said. But Max was scared because the cave was very dark. “Don’t worry Max, you are safe in my purple cap”, Ruffo said. “Great” Max said. Barney said, “Come let’s go find our ball”.

They went inside the cave. It looked a little scary but they continued exploring the cave. On the way, the path was blocked by a huge rock. While Barney and Ruffo were thinking for a solution, Max found an old piece of paper on the ground. He told others what he saw. Ruffo looked at the piece of paper. On the paper, it was written “There were 56 cartons of milk. The cartons must be kept inboxes. There are 6 boxes. The number of cartons in each box must be equal. How many cartons are in each box and how many cartons will be remaining?”. Once you find the answer please keep it near the rock.

After thinking, Barney said, “I can’t do it.”

“Me too. Ruffo did you get the answer”. Max asked. “No, but I am trying”.

Finally, it was Max who found the answer as below:

“We have to divide 56 by 6, that is 56/6 = Answer 9 with a remainder of 2. So, there will be 9 cartons of milk in each box with 2 cartons remaining”

“I got it, I got it.” He exclaimed.

“Great Now we can write the answer”, Barney said.

“But where do we write it,” Ruffo said.

“Don’t worry, I have a small rough book with me,” Barney said.

“Here it is,” he said and pulled a rough book out of his pocket. He wrote the answer in the book, tore the answer paper and placed it near the rock.

Suddenly, a huge crack appeared on the rock which grew wider finally leaving a path in the middle. “Yay! We did it” they all shouted.

They walked through the middle. On the way, they found another obstacle. This time it was a huge wall which was blocking their path. To the side of the wall, a box was kept and a question was written on the wall. “This is strange,” Max said. The question was, “There were 24 balloons in a house. The house owner is planning to buy 7 times more than he has now. So how many balloons will there be in his house once he buys more balloons?”

It was also written in the wall that once you find the answer, write it on the box. Barney gave everyone a paper from her rough book to calculate. They did the calculation for a while.

Barney and Ruffo said, “We couldn’t get the answer. Did you Max?”

“No, but I am still calculating, I guess we should multiply 24 by 7 and add 24 to that”, Max said.

A minute later Max shouted, “I got it!” The answer is 192!

They put the paper in the box. Suddenly, the wall went up giving the friends a path to walk ahead.

Ruffo said we better watch out for more obstacles like this”

“You are right,” Barney said. They walked really carefully. Then suddenly a crystal ball appeared in front of them. “Oh no! this could be another problem which we might have to solve” Barney exclaimed. As soon as he said that, a question appeared on the crystal ball. The question was: “there were 11,045 potatoes in a field. There were 21,046 tomatoes in the same field. How many potatoes and tomatoes are there altogether?”.

The crystal ball said, “Once you find the answer, you could tell me, but keep in mind that if the answer is wrong, you are in danger.”

“What shall we do?” Ruffo cried.

“It’s ok. I think we can find the answer.” Barney said.

“Why don’t we walk through the sides,” Max said.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea, let’s try,” Barney said. But when they tried to move through the sides a sliding wall came in with a loud bang blocking their way.

“What do we do now,” Max said. “We have to add the numbers together,” Barney said to Max and Ruffo.

A few minutes later, Barney shouted, “32,091, I got it!”.

He checked his answer twice because he did not want to face the danger that the Crystal ball had warned if they got their answer wrong.

“Are you sure Barney?” Max asked with a scarred face.

“Of course! I checked twice.” Barney replied.

Alright then. We have to tell the crystal ball now. As soon as Barney told the answer, a gap emerged between the wall and the crystal ball. Ruffo went to the gap and tried if he could wriggle through, and he could.

“Yay,” they exclaimed.

“Hey guys I found out something if you notice all the questions are based on mathematics,” Ruffo shouted.

Really! How many more questions are there going to be?” Max said.

“I am not so sure. But I think these questions will lead us to our lost ball.” Ruffo said.

As they continue to walk, they found a giant bear on their path. They got scared and turned to walk back.

Right then, the bear said, I am the owner of this magic cave and I will let you take your ball if you answer my last question correctly.” Barney said ok and the bear asked the question: “There were 158 jars of honey in the house of a bear. The bear’s sister asked if she could have 87 jars of honey. So, the bear gave his sister 87 jars of honey. Now, how many jars of honey does the bear have now?”

“Let’s do the calculation, I guess we have to subtract 87 from 158,” Barney said. Max felt really scared looking at the bear and thinking about what he might do if they got the answer wrong. But he gathered courage and helped Barney and Ruffo solve the question.

“I got it,” Ruffo said after calculating in their books. “The answer is 71!”. He told the answer to the bear.

The bear said, “your answer is right, all of you are really good in mathematics. I will let you now take the ball, its right there next to my honey jars. And you may take a honey jar also as my gift.”

Max took the ball and all of them thanked the bear for the honey jar and the mathematics adventure.

They were all happy and escaped through the escape route. Later they finished their cricket and went back to their homes and told their parents about their puzzle adventure.

-------The End----