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[ReamusLQ]

Originally posted by a1s@Aug 13 2005, 05:57 AM
here is a simple one (I got it in <2 minutes):
3 friends stayed at a hotel, they payed 30 silver rubles (it's an old problem) for their stay. in the morning the owner of the hotel sent them back their change with his aide, the aide decided to keep 2 rubles for himself, and only gave each lord a ruble. now each friend payed 9 rubles that's 27, and the aides 2 that's 29, how is tis possible?

you're doing the math incorrectly, but in a convincing manner...actually, even with your math it makes no sense.

Using your math, you would have 30-2=28. Meaning he diveded the 28 up into three equal portions, so each guy paid somewhere around nine...your way works, but it is not as convincing as the original riddle, which I shall now post...

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????

Now then, the absurd logic in this riddle is that it convincingly does wrong math, saying that each man payed nine plus the two. Meaning, your logic is this:

30/3=10 (inital payment), 10-1=9 (how much each paid after the refund), 9*3=27 (each one paid) 27+2=29 (how much the bellhop kept..filthy bastard...)

This is misleading, as you add in the two dollars in the wrong section. The logical break down looks something like this. 30 (the inital amount they paid for the room) 30-5=25 (the amount they paid after rebate). 25+3 (They each got a dollar back), 28+2=30 (The amount that thieving, coniving, slimy bellhop took)

There's your missing dollar.

How ever, I also remember answering the question this way, and it was a little more fun...

"The following night two friends check into the same motel. Once again the clerk charges them $30, or $15 per person. After the clerk remembers the total rate is only $25 he sends the bellhop upstairs with five $1 bills to pay the two friends back. The bellhop knows he got away with larceny once so he tries it again. But this time he pockets $3 and returns $2 to the hotel guests ($1 per guest). So each of the two guests got $1 back from their original $15. Therefore each paid $14 which is a total payment of $28 for the room. Now the bellhop has $3, the guests paid $28, for a total of $31....THERE'S THE MISSING DOLLAR!!!!"