Answer:
The items were on Johnny's list was 5 and Bobby's 13.
Explanation:
Given:
Bobby's christmas list had 3 more times as many items on it than Johnny's list.
Johnny asked for 8 fewer items than bobby.
Now, to find the number of items were on Johnny's and Bobby's christmas list.
Let the number of items on Johnny's list be
.
And let the number of items on Bobby's list be
.
So, as given in question:
Bobby's christmas list had 3 more times as many items on it than Johnny's list:
.......( 1 )
And, Johnny asked for 8 fewer items than bobby:

Now, putting the value of
from equation ( 1 ) in the place of
:
⇒

⇒

Adding 5 on both sides we get:
⇒

Subtracting
on both sides we get:
⇒

Thus, Johnny's list = 5 items.
Now, putting the value of
in equation ( 1 ) we get:

⇒

⇒

⇒

Hence, Bobby's list = 13 items.
Therefore, the items were on Johnny's list was 5 and Bobby's 13.