Every morning, Carla puts 79 apples in her backpack to eat for lunch. Unfortunately, Buffy stole some of Carla's apples on the school bus, and 26 apples fell out of a hole on the bottom. So at lunchtime, Carla only had 8 apples remaining. How many apples did Buffy steal from Carla?
Let B be the number of apples that Buffy stole. Then 79 - B - 26 = 8.
Combining constants produces 53 - B = 8.
Adding B to both sides produces 52 = B + 8
Thus the number of apples stolen by Buffy is B = 53 - 8 = <<53-8=45>>45.
#### 45