[starfirefly]

3 men go to a hotel, they only have 10$ each and the rooms are 30$ each so they decide to share a room... the housekeeper takes them to their room. Later on that night the manager starts to feel bad that 3 men have to share the room so he decides to give them back 5$, the 3 men realize that you can't evenly split 5$ so they each take 1$ and give the housekeeper a 2$ tip... now each man has paid only 9$ for the room, and 9$multiplied by 3 men is 27$ total, and the maid has 2$... 27$+2$= 29$... so where did the other dollar go??

[ebaines]

Definitely a classic puzzle - I first heard this one 40 years ago (back when $30 could actually get you decent hotel room).

I could respond with the solution to the puzzle if you like, but that might ruin it for others.

[Jentau]

I'm stumped.. help please ;)

[ebaines]

i'm stumped..help please ;)

Of the original $30, each man got $1 back and therefore spent $9. So between them they spent a total of $27 to cover both the room at $25 and $2 for the tip. So the math is:

$27 (what the men spent on room and tip)
- $2 (tip)
---------
$25 (what they spent on the room)


With me so far?

The riddle tries to confuse you by doing an addition instead of a subtraction, like this:

$27 (what the men spent on room and tip)
+$2 tip
--------
$29.

So you can see that the $29 figure is meaningless.

[Jentau]

Yes I asked my sister about it and this is what she said:
Uh... I figured that if they each had 10 bucks... gave it away ($30)... then got back $5 for them to share. So still, the hotel has $25 of their money and the dudes have $5 (this still equals $30... 25+5)... So then they each have 3 bucks each. The hotel still has their 25 bucks and the maid has their 2 bucks so the hotel has 27 bucks and the dudes have 3 bucks. 27 + 3 is 30. I don't see a dollar missing... but maybe my brain figures it out different?