Missing Dollar Riddle

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Question: Three guests check into a hotel room. The clerk says the bill is $30, so each guest pays $10. Later the clerk realizes the bill should only be $25. To rectify this, he gives the bellhop $5 to return to the guests. On the way to the room, the bellhop realizes that he cannot divide the money equally. As the guests didn't know the total of the revised bill, the bellhop decides to just give each guest $1 and keep $2 for himself. Each guest got $1 back: so now each guest only paid $9; bringing the total paid to $27. The bellhop has $2. And $27 + $2 = $29 so, if the guests originally handed over $30, what happened to the remaining $1?

Origin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_dollar_riddle

Riddle Discussion

By: Sewere on 16/6/16

This should clarify things a bit, since the answer is wrong. Lets think about the guests as a single organism. First when they paid, they were 30 in minus, so -30. The clerk was 30 in plus so +30. He noticed the error and gave the assholeboy 5 bucks away. So the clerks balance is +25. The assholeboy takes the money and gives everybody one dollar so their balance is now -27. The assholeboys balance is +2.\nAnd now to add things up:\nClerks balance= +25\nGuests balance= -27\nAssholeboys balance= +2\nNow if we add assholeboys balance to the guests balance it looks like this:\n-27 + 2\n= -25\nSo everything is in balance. Guests are missing 25 dollars and the Clerk is 25 dollars in plus.\nThere you have it folks.

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By: Rithmatics on 13/11/13

The tip was actually paid by the guest and not the hotel.\nIn essence the Guests paid the bellhop $5 as tip. \nSo each guest paid the bellhop $1.67 as tip. \nSo effectively they paid the hotel $8.33\nWhen they got the $1 back it made it $9.33\nSo the Bellhop's tip is now $0.67.\nSo $9.33 + $0.67 = $10

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By: The Mathematical wizard on 30/10/13

One does not simply add the $2 to the $27,\nOne subtracts the $2 from the $27, to equal $25

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By: Mel on 3/10/13

Because there's a flaw in our mathematical system...

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