Friday, March 16, 2007

The missing dollar!

3 men go into a motel. The man behind the desk said the room is $30, so each man paid $10 and went to the room.*

A while later the man behind the desk realized the room was only $25, so he sent the bellboy to the 3 guys' room with $5. On the way the bellboy couldn't figure out how to split $5 evenly between 3 men, so he gave each man $1 and kept the other $2 for himself.

This meant that the 3 men each paid $9 for the room, which is a total of $27, add the $2 that the bellboy kept = $29.

Where is the other dollar?


*Don't ask why 3 men are sharing one room. That's irrelevant to the challenge.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Skewed logic. The $2 the bellboy took shouldn't be added to the $27 - it is part of the $27.

Looking at how much each had at every step:

Before the initial payment, the motel had 0, bellboy 0 and travellers 30. Total 30.

After the initial payment, motel 30, bellboy 0, travellers 0. Total 30.

After giving refund to bellboy, motel 25, bellboy 5, travellers 0. Total 30.

After the money is given, motel 25, bellboy 2, travellers 3. Total 30.

It is always 30.

Anonymous said...

hmmm..this is so interesting! with all due respect, Rudi's logical deduction of where the money went is correct, but somehow, that doesn't answer the question.

Will you be revealing the answer, HL!?

Anonymous said...

Haiyo!

:p

There is no solution to that particular question. It is impossible, because the logic is incorrect in the first place.

It's like saying "1 + 1 = 3. Somebody solve this - I don't get it." It just doesn't jive, because the very logic is, well, not logical.

The solution is "it's a trick question".

:)

HL said...

25 + 3 + 2 = 30
OR
27 - 2 = 25

NOT
(9 x 3) + 2 = 29 = ??!

Wudi is wight.

It's a twick question.