There were three men in a boat. They received an amount of coins in a chest from 200 - 300 as a reward for surviving the storm without damaging anything. One night, the first man thought that he would his share first so he wouldn't have to bring up an argument. He split the money into thirds and took a piece. There was an extra so he threw it out into the sea. Later, the second man did the same exact thing as the first man, taking his share of one-third of the remaining money, not knowing the first man already got his part. There was one more left over, so he threw it into the sea. Finally the third man did the same exact same thing as the other two, taking his share of one-third of that remaining money. The tax collector found some coins left in the chest and divided in three parts giving one part to each sailor, all who are angry with the decision. There was one coin left again so the tax collector took it as payment for his services.
SO how many coins were there and how many coins did each sailor receive?
Hint: The number of coins a sailor got times three will always be one less than the number of coins there in the chest at that time. For example, Sailor Three got ten coins when he got his "share". So there were 31 coins before he divided the money. This problem comes from one of my favorite books made by Malba.