The mixed apples were sold of at the rate of five apples for two pence. So they must would have had a multiple of five i.e. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30,…, 60, 65,… etc apples.
But the minimum number of apples they could have together is 60; so that 30 would have been of Mrs. Smith's that would fetch her 10 (an integer) pence and the other 30 of Mrs. Jones's that would fetch her 15 (also an integer) pence.
When sold separately it would fetch them 10+15=25 pence altogether. But when sold together it would fetch them 60X2/5=24 pence i.e. a loss of one (25-24=1) pence.
Since they lost 7 pence altogether; they had altogether 60X7=420 apples that fetched them only 420X2/5=168 pence and they shared 84 pence each of them. But Mrs. Jones could sell her 420/2=210 apples for 210/2=105 pence so she lost "21 pence".
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