Mathematical Problem

Whilst making love a necklace broke.
A row of pearls mislaid.
One sixth fell to the floor.
One fifth upon the bed.
The young woman saved one third of them.
One tenth were caught by her lover.
If six pearls remained upon the string
How many pearls were there altogether?

-- Bhaskaracharya

On a side note, the answer is 30 pearls because where
x represents the original number of pearls on the
necklace:

6+(x/6)+(x/5)+(x/3)+(x/10)=x
(6/x)+(1/6)+(1/5)+(1/3)+(1/10)=1
(36/x)+1+(6/5)+2+(3/5)=6
(36/x)+3+(9/5)=6
(180/x)+24=30
(180/x)=6
x=30

* All the Indian mathematical work is in the form of verse, called 'sutras', they are in sanskrit, an ancient Indian language. The language lends itself beautifully to poetry. In fact all form of sciences such as medicine, astronomy etc are also in form of poetry. Wish our schools these days would teach maths as above.