Let the boy be in position \( x \) initially. After being shifted by 3 places, he becomes the sixth from the right, so his new position is \( 12 - 6 + 1 = 7 \). Since he shifted 3 places towards the right, his initial position was: \[ 7 - 3 = 4 \] Thus, the boy was initially in the fourth position from the left end. To solve position shifting problems, calculate the new position and then work backwards to find the initial position.