There are many variants of the puzzle. Professor David Singmaster's "Chronology of Recreational Mathematics" suggests these type of mathematical misdirection puzzles descended from a problem in an 18th-century arithmetic book, Francis Walkingame's "Tutor's Assistant" which was published, and republished, from 1751 to 1860 where it appeared on page 185, prob. 116 in this form, "If 48 taken from 120 leaves 72, and 72 taken from 91 leaves 19, and 7 taken from thence leaves 12, what number is that, out of which, when you have taken 48, 72, 19, and 7, leaves 12?" Singmaster adds, "Though this is not the same as the withdrawal problems below, the mixing of amounts subtracted and remainders makes me think that this kind of problem may have been the basis of the later kind."