May I bum a dollar?

[viperdude9036]

Three friends check into a motel for the night and the clerk tells them the bill is $30, payable in advance. So, they each pay the clerk $10 and go to their room. A few minutes later, the clerk realizes he has made an error and overcharged the trio by $5. He asks the bellhop to return $5 to the 3 friends who had just checked in. The bellhop

Comments

missing dollar

[anonymous]

The answer is in the way the question is worded. You cannot add what one person HAS to what someone else has PAID and come up with any kind of a meaningful number, you have to subtract.
Each man has paid $9.
The bellhop has $2.
Difference
$9 x 3 = $27
2
$25

The hotel clerk has the other 25 dollars.
To look at it from the standpoint of the original $30. Each man has $1.
The bellhop has $2.
The hotel clerk has $25.
Total
$1 x 3 = $3
2
25
$30

The question is, who do you know that would spend the time to figure it out?

Another missing dollar

[anonymous]

In case that you don't like the above answer this is another way to find the missing dollar.

The following night two friends check into the same motel. Once again the clerk charges them $30, or $15 per person. After the clerk remembers the total rate is only $25 he sends the bellhop upstairs with five $1 bills to pay the two friends back. The bellhop knows he got away with larceny once so he tries it again. But this time he pockets $3 and returns $2 to the hotel guests ($1 per guest). So each of the two guests got $1 back from their original $15. Therefore each paid $14 which is a total payment of $28 for the room. Now the bellhop has $3, the guests paid $28, for a total of $31....THERE'S THE MISSING DOLLAR!!!!

[ttu_hollister]

nice