$ THE MISSING DOLLAR RIDDLE $
Three friends check into a motel for the night and the clerk tells them the bill is $30, payable in advance. So, they each pay the clerk $10 and go to their room. A few minutes later, the clerk realizes he has made an error and overcharged the trio by $5. He asks the bellhop to return $5 to the 3 friends who had just checked in. The bellhop sees this as an opportunity to make $2 as he reasons that the three friends would have a tough time dividing $5 evenly among them; so he decides to tell them that the clerk made a mistake of only $3, giving a dollar back to each of the friends. He pockets the leftover $2 and goes home for the day! Now, each of the three friends gets a dollar back, thus they each paid $9 for the room which is a total of $27 for the night. We know the bellhop pocketed $2 and adding that to the $27, you get $29, not $30 which was originally spent. Where did the other dollar go????
Riddle cracked. Click comments for answer.
posted by MC @ 2:49 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
BODMAS rules 25+3+2 and not 9x3+2 you can't just add and subtract as you like....
SOLUTION
Good answers from both participants. The facts in this riddle are clear: There is an initial $30 charge. It should have been $25, so $5 must be returned and accounted for. $3 is given to the 3 friends, $2 is kept by the bellhop - there you have the $5. The trick to this riddle is that the addition and subtraction are done at the wrong times to misdirect your thinking - and quite successfully for most. Each of the 3 friends did indeed pay $9, not $10, and as far as the friends are concerned, they paid $27 for the night. But we know that the clerk will tell us that they were charged only $25 and when you add the $3 returned with the $2 kept by the bellhop, you come up with $30.
Guys, forget the additions and subtractions.....just look at it from each party's (the 3 friends, the clerk and the bellhop) position. The 3 friends paid $27 (i.e. $30 - $3), while the clerk received $25 (i.e. $30 - $5) and the bellhop received $2 (i.e. $5 - $3). What was paid ($27) equals what was received ($25 + $2). There was never a missing dollar!
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