Hotel Puzzle

Three men stop at a hotel and agree to share a room for $30. Each gives the desk clerk $10.

Later, the clerk realizes he’s overcharged them for the room by $5. He gives the bellboy five $1 bills and tells him to return the money to the three men. The unscrupulous bellboy keeps $2 for himself and gives $1 to each of the three men.

So the men paid $9 each for the room, for a total of $27. The bellboy has $2. What happened to the other dollar?

	Select Click for Answer
There’s actually no difficulty here. The desk clerk has $25, the guests have $3, and the bellboy has $2. The “trouble” arises only because we’re trying to add the bellboy’s $2 to the guests’ $27. Instead we should subtract it, giving $25 for the clerk, which is correct. In effect, the men paid $27 for a $25 room, and the clerk gave the change to the bellboy.

April 27, 2006January 14, 2013 | Puzzles