Sorry to ruin it for you, the answers are just bellow:
tritone: Three businessmen go to a cheap motel looking to spend the night, but there is only one available room. Agreeing to share the room, the desk clerk charges them $30.00 for the night. The three of them split the cost, ten dollars apiece.
Later the manager of the motel tells the clerk that he overcharged the men, since the cost should have been only $25.00. So the clerk gives the bellboy $5.00 and tells him to give it to the men. The bellboy decides to cheat the men and keeps $2.00 for himself, and gives each of the men only one dollar back.
So each man has paid $9.00 to stay for the night, and 3 x $9.00 = $27.00.
The bellboy has pocketed $2.00. But $27.00 + $2.00 = $29.00.
Where is the missing $1.00?
But order of regulations doesn't work like that... you can't retroactively recalculate with the new info :)
In order make them pay 9 each, he had to tell them the room costs 27, 2 more then the actual cost, and he netted the extra 2.
So it was like this - they payed 30 before (3*10) they got 3 back so 27=(3*9), and the bellboy took the remaining 2.
It doesn't need to be added back to 30 as the calculation changed and now doesn't add up back to 30 (-1=+2-3)=29 :)
capile2: Man, I love these brain teasers. Like:
"A man uses the shaft every day to go out. In raining days he uses the shaft again when he comes home. In sunny days he uses the stairs. Why?"
Sometimes I start rounds of these with friends somewhere we gather, although not the ones involving math. These I keep to written form, by forum or email.
capile2: snip
He is too short to get to the button of the floor his apartment is on. On rainy days he has an umbrella that helps him reach the button :)
