Katherine and shelly had $288 altogether. katherinine gave 1/3 of her share to shally and their father gave $68 to shally. they now have the sme amount of
money. how
much money did
shally have at first?

This is a problem that has to be read minutely to understand the tricks inside it.
Amount of money Catherine and Shelly had altogether = $288
Now Katherine gave 1/3 of her share to Shelly.
Let us assume the amount of money Katherine had = x
Amount of money Katherine gives to Shelly = x/3
The amount of money given by their father to Shelly = $68
Then
Amount of money that Katherine now has = [(x/3) + 68]
Now we can easily get to the equation
x = [(x/3) + 68]
3x = x + (68 * 3)
3x - x = 204
2x = 204
x = 204/2
  = 102
So the amount of money that Katherine has = $102
Amount of money Shelly had at first = x/3
                                                         = 102/3 dollars
                                                         = 34 dollars
So Shelly at first had $34 with her.