(Counter/Accessor) Did I do this right?

I didn't understand the problem, so I looked at this explanation: methods - Using a Counter class to increment and decrement: java - Stack Overflow

And I came up with:

Code Java:

package counterassignment5;//http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7857600/using-a-counter-class-to-increment-and-decrement-java
 
public class CounterAssignment5 {
 
    public static void main(String[] args) {
 
        Counter count1 = new Counter();
        System.out.println("Setting the counter to zero: " + count1.start());
        System.out.println("");
 
        System.out.println("Let's change the left side.");
        System.out.println("");
 
        count1.increase();
        count1.increase();
        System.out.println("After increasing the number by 2, the value is " + count1+ ".");
 
        count1.decrease();
        System.out.println("After decreasing it by 1, the value is " + count1 +".");
 
        System.out.println("Finished counting. Counter value of left side is: ");
        count1.output();
        System.out.println("");
 
        Counter count2 = new Counter();
        System.out.println("Is " + count1 + " equal to " + count2 + "? ");
        System.out.println(count1.equals(count2));
        System.out.println("");
 
        count2.increase();
        System.out.println("Increased right-hand side by 1. Counter value of right side is: ");
        count2.output();
        System.out.println("");System.out.println("Is " + count1 + " equal to " + count2 + "? ");
        System.out.println(count1.equals(count2));
        System.out.println("");
 
        count2.reset();
        System.out.println("Value reset to " + count2 +".");
 
    }
 
}

(Separate Class)

Code Java:

package counterassignment5;
 
public class Counter {
 
   public int num = 0;
    public Counter(){
        this.num=0;
    }
 
 
    public int start(){
    return num;
    }
    public int increase(){
    return num++;   
    }
    public int decrease(){
    return num--;
    }
    public int reset(){
    return num = 0;    
    }
    public String toString(){
    return Integer.toString(num);
    }
    public boolean equals (Counter counter2){
        if (num == counter2.start())
        return true;
        else    
        return false;
    }
    public void output(){
        System.out.println(num);
    }}

It works as intended, but I'm wondering if I understood the problem correctly. If I didn't...that would be bad.