Brain teaser

[LoveThemGirls]

Ok, I got this in an email today, and I'm getting a massive headache thinking about it.....perhaps age is making me stupider....can anyone figure this one out?



3 men go into a motel. The desk clerk said the room was $30, so each man paid $10 and went to the room. A while later, the desk clerk realized the room was only $25, so he sent the bellboy to the 3 guys' room with $5.

On the way, the bellboy couldn't figure out how to split $5
evenly between 3 men, so he gave each man $1 and kept the other $2 for himself. This meant that the 3 men each paid $9 for the room, which is a total of $27. Add to that the $2 the bellboy kept and the total is $29.

Where is the other dollar?

 

[gala]

It makes no sense to add the Bellboy's $2 debit to the men's $27 credit--the resulting $29 is nonsense. You should subtract the debit from the credit to come up with the $25 received by the hotel, if anything.

Here's the right way to view it:

Men pay $30 to hotel:
Credit men $30
Debit hotel $30

Hotel gives $5 to bellboy:
Debit bellboy $5
Credit hotel $5

Bellboy gives $3 to men:
Credit bellboy $3
Debit men $3

Now it balances. The men have a $27 credit, the bellboy a $2 debit, and the hotel a $25 debit.

 

[train]

Let me see .....each guy has paid $9 that's $27 . The hotel received $25 and the bellboy $2 which also equals $27 . Works for me .

 

[train]

Gala . Let me guess ......accountant? Lol

 

[RUBGURU]

That one always got my friends going. Does anybody have any other ones that they know

 

[LoveThemGirls]

Thanks Gala, you just saved me a night of sleeplessness and headache!

 

[johnyboy]

ok is there a joke here...you don't add the 2 you subtract it...27 -2
+ 25 could I possibly be a genius and never new ???..i hope not...ignorance truly is bliss

 

[drlove]

Here's another way of looking at it.

3 men pay $10 each, which is $30

This amount is then broken down to:

Front desk: $25

3 men: ($1 * 3) = $3

Bellboy: $2

The amounts add up to $30

Problem solved.

 

[Big Daddy]

This is simple

This is simple.

When the room was $ 30 each man paid $ 10.

When the room was $25 each man paid $ 8.33.


The bell man had total of $ 5, of which $1 was given to 3 people and 2 was kept to himself.

so, at $ 25 a room, it comes 3*(8.33)+ 3*(1)+ 2 = $30.

Your assumption of $ 9 per person is wrong. It has to be $ 9.33 per person.

I hope this is a cure to your headache

 

[shack]

Re: This is simple

This is simple.

When the room was $ 30 each man paid $ 10.

Your assumption of $ 9 per person is wrong. It has to be $ 9.33 per person.

If each guy paid $10 originally and each got back $1, that makes $9 out of pocket, not $9.33

Therefore, each guy is $9 out of pocket, of which $8.33 went to management and $.67 went to Light-Finger Louie. In reality, the total cost for the room is $27 if you include the $2 kept.

However, the way the problem is presented does make it a bit difficult to reconcile.

 

[Big Daddy]

I am not sure why people find it so difficult

Here is a simplified version.

Each person paid $ 10.

Each person received $ 1.

Out of pocket expense for each person is $ 9.

Of the $ 9 out of pocket expense for each person, $ 8.33 (approx) goes to the room and remaining $ 0.67 (approx) goes to the bellboy. So room is $ 25 and bellboy makes $ 2.


I am not sure why it is so hard to understand?

 

[shack]

Thanks for confirming my calculations.

 

[Big Daddy]

You are welcome

It is nice to solve this problem without accounting crap Which never made any sense to me anyway. My earlier calculations were done late in night so there was a 33 cents error.

 

[Jacques_Offe]

Solution ??

And anybody wonders why ENRON was sooo f***ed up!!!??

 

[gala]

Re: You are welcome

It is nice to solve this problem without accounting crap Which never made any sense to me anyway. My earlier calculations were done late in night so there was a 33 cents error.

Accounting crap! Haha.

Yeah yeah, you don't need it, you can get the right answer like you did. But I think you need accounting crap to show why the other way of adding $27 to $2 and coming up with $29 is wrong.

 

[shack]

Re: Re: You are welcome

But I think you need accounting crap to show why the other way of adding $27 to $2 and coming up with $29 is wrong.

It is wrong because the $2 is already included in the $27 total. $25 to hotel and $2 to bellboy. You can't count it twice.
If you look at it from the $30 total--$25 hotel, $2 bellboy,$3 refund.

 

[68.5]

My Spin on things

Ok, most of the answers were right, but most also failed to point out what the real problem with the riddle was:

Instead of ADDING $2 to the $27 (assuming $9 each man), you should SUBTRACT the $2 to achieve $25, which is the net.

So each man paid 9 bucks, and of the total (27), 2 bucks goes to the bellboy for a grand total of 25 for the room.

 

[68.5]

And now of course I see that Shack already pointed that out....


I'll hold my head in shame

 

[Girth]

Do we count the VAT?