"BUY TWO, GET ONE FREE"

Ashley Ann's Discount Taxidermy is having a sale on mooseheads, this week only. Buy two, get one free!!! This is exactly the opportunity you've been waiting for: you're going to buy two mooseheads, get one free, and redecorate the whole house.

On an ordinary day, a moosehead will run you $125.00. So you're paying for two mooseheads ($250.00), and walking out with a free moosehead. But what did you really gain?

Well, you paid $250.00 for something that would have cost you $375.00 last week.

So $250.00 * X = $375.00 means that X is 1.50, or that you got 150% of what you paid for (2 mooseheads).  Your "THAN WHAT?" here is 2 mooseheads. 50 % of 2 mooseheads is another moosehead, and you ended up with three mooseheads. You're no Martha Stewart, but you aren't going to taken in by any flimflam artists.