A Math Riddle You'd Love to Hate

in riddle •  7 years ago  (edited)

Three people get a motel room for the night. When they get to the motel they pay a $30 bill for the stay, then go up to their room. Shortly after, the bellhop brings up their bags and gives the people back $5 because the motel was having a weekday discount. So the three people decide to each keep one of the $5 dollars and to give the bellhop a $2 tip. However, when they sat down to tally up their expenses for the motel they could not explain the following details:

Each one of them had originally paid $10 (towards the initial $30), then each got back $1 which meant that they each paid $9. Then they gave the bellhop a $2 tip. HOWEVER, 3 • $9 + $2 = $29

The three people couldn't figure out what happened to the other dollar. After all, the three paid out $30 but could only account for $29.

Any thoughts?

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  ·  7 years ago (edited)

They got $5 back but gave the bellhop $2, so that's the amount that should equal 3*9, and it does. The additional 3 dollars are in their pockets. They each paid $9 including tip, not before tip.

Your equation could read (for sake of clarity) 3*$9= $30-$5+2

But also, yes, your trickiness made me scratch my head for several minutes. An excellent deception! (I mean, "riddle".) ;P

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