Three friends, returning from a movie, stopped to eat at a restaurant. After dinner, they paid their bill and noticed a bowl of mints at the front counter. Sita took $1/3$ of the mints, but returned four because she had a momentary pang of guilt. Fatima then took $1/4$ of what was left but returned three for similar reasons. Eswari then took half of the remainder but threw two back into the bowl. The bowl had only $17$ mints left when the raid was over. How many mints were originally in the bowl?
- $38$
- $31$
- $41$
- None of these