The manager is working at a hotel one night when three men come in and ask for a single room for the night. The manager replies that the cost will be $30, and each man puts in $10 and they head up to their rooms. The manager begins to put the money in the register when he realizes he has overcharged the men by $5, and asks a favor for the bellhop, who saw the men check in. The bellhop heads up to the room, when it occurs to him that $5 doesn't evenly divide into 3, and comes up with a bright idea. He pockets $2, and gives each man a $1 bill back, the men being none the wiser.
Now the question is this.. We know that each man ends up paying $9, accounting for $27 of the original total and that the bellhop kept $2, so where is the missing $1?
Originally posted by geepamoogle The manager is working at a hotel one night when three men come in and ask for a single room for the night. The manager replies that the cost will be $30, and each man puts in $10 and they head up to their rooms. The manager begins to put the money in the register when he realizes he has overcharged the men by $5, and asks a favor for the bellhop, who ...[text shortened]... ounting for $27 of the original total and that the bellhop kept $2, so where is the missing $1?
There is no missing dollar, of course, because the question is misstated: The men each payed $9, for a total of $27, the bellhop essentially just took $2 of that, and the remaining $25 went into the cash register.
Doesn't look like anyone else has anything to add. You, sir, are indeed correct.
The bad thing is, this problem was posed in some fluff (philosophy, I think) course at a technical school I was at, and tried to explain that the logical framing of the question was faulty, but I never could get the teacher to figure that out. Of course, it only works if you frame it that way, or else people naturally order it in a more consistent manner, and there ceases to be any riddle at all.
When you point out the $27 paid, you are, in essence, pointing out where the money is NOT, rather than looking at where it IS.. The other $3 are with the gentlemen, as a rebate.
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