What happened to the other dollar?

Question

Three men walk into a hotel, and they tell the desk clerk that they want accommodations for the night. He tells them that it will cost them $10 each, collects the money from each of them, and instructs the bell boy to show them upstairs to the rooms.

Once upstairs, the bell boy discovers that, being good friends, they don't want three separate rooms, but one room with three beds, so he goes down to tell the desk clerk.

The desk clerk informs the bell boy that one room for three people is less than three room for one person ~ the one room only costs $25. Then he gives the bell boy the key to the new room and $5 change to give the men.

On the way upstairs, the bell boy thinks to himself, "There are three men, and five dollars. I can't divide it equally among them"! So he thinks of a scheme...

He takes the men to the new room, gives them each $1, and keeps the extra $2 for himself.

---------------------

Now, if each of the men originally paid $10, and they each got $1 back, then they each paid $9.

$9 times 3 is 27... so they paid a total of $27. plus the two the bell boy kept makes $29.

What happened to the other dollar?

Rob W · Accepted Answer

How about we finish the story...

A few months later, two of the original three guests check into a hotel room in the same hotel. The clerk says the bill is $20, so each guest pays $10. Later the clerk realizes the bill should only be $15. 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 $3 for himself.

Now that each of the guests has been given $1 back, each has paid $9, bringing the total paid to $18. The bellhop has $3, so $18 + $3 = $21, and the guests originally handed over $20, so that's where the missing dollar from the original problem is!

Anonymous · Answer

There are two equations for this problem

$30 = $25 + $5 = $25+ (3 x $1) +$2

and

3 x $9 = $27 which is the amount each man payed, including their unknown "tip" to the bell boy. The price of the room was $25 which is $27 - $2 (which they payed the bell boy).

You can't mix the equations or else you will come up with an impossible answer, and therefore there is no missing dollar.

Therefore you can't write your second statement

"$9 times 3 is 27... so they paid a total of $27. plus the two the bell boy kept makes $29."

You can't write this because each man payed $27 including the bell boy's "tip" so you can't add the bell boy's tip again to make $29. You should write something like $25 = 3 x $9 - $2

So the correct statement would be, Each man payed 3 x $9 and had 3 x $1, so $30= 3 x $9 + 3 x $1

cowgirlfirefighter · Answer

No the New room cost them $25 dollars for all three men in the same room, that leaves only five dollars, but the bell boy wanted to use a scheme to make money for himself. He gave each man which is 3 dollars total and kept two.. there is no more money left.. Zero because the bell boy kept the last two dollars for himself.

Anonymous · Answer

Each person paid $9, totalling $27. The manager has $25 and the bellboy has $2. The bellboy's $2 should be added to the manager's $25 or subtracted from the tenants' $27, not added to the tenants' $27.

Jazzy! · Answer

that doesn't make sense. $5 change. 1 goes to three guys. so theres $2 left. those $2 go to the bell boy. so your questions just doesnt make any sense.

Rich Bottles Jr. · Answer

They didn't each pay $9! They didn't know it, but they each paid about $8.33 because the bellboy kept part of their refund.

Come As You Are · Answer

a teacher gave us this riddle but i cant remember the answer!
y did they get $1 back!?!?!
sorry..no idea!...

Organic Ninja · Answer

I ate it

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What happened to the other dollar?

8 Answers