Question 170108: Three men are attending a math conference together. To save money, they decide to share a room. Upon entering the hotel, the man behind the desk states that the room is $30. Each man reaches into his pocket and pays the man behind the counter $10. The men head up to their room.
An hour later the manager realizes that the man behind the front desk chargered the men too much. The room is at a reduced rate for all ‘conference go-ers’. Instead of $30, the room is actually $25. The manager hands the bellboy five one-dollar bills and tells him to return the $5 to the three men. Well, the bellboy was not an honest boy. He knew that the three men didn’t know that they were receiving money back, so he only returned $3 to the men and pocketed the other $2.
This means that instead of each paying $10, each of the three men paid $9. If you multiply $9 by three, you will get $27. If you add the $2 in the bellboy’s pocket, you get $29.
The men originally paid $30…where is the other dollar???
Answer by ptaylor(2198)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
There is no "other dollar"
1. The men originally paid $30----it went into the manager's cash register
2. The manager realized that he charged too much, so he gave the bellboy five dollars to return to the men ($25 in cash register $5 in bellboys's hand)
3. The bellboy gave each man one dollar back and kept 2 dollars for himself ($25 in register, each man has $1 =$28 plus the $2 the bellboy kept=$30)
Another way to look at it is as follows: The statement that the men paid $27 for the room is incorrect---they paid $25 for the room and got fleeced out of $2 by the bellboy ($27-$2=$25 and that jives with whats in the cash register)
Gotta keep track of where the $$$ are, otherwise the fingers may leave the hand.
Hope this helps---ptaylor
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