3 college kids are driving back from Spring Break, and stop at a roadside hotel for the night. They walk up to the front desk and ask what the cheapest room rate is.
“$30”, says the manager.
“Hey, that’s only $10 bucks each! That’s good. We’ll take the room.”
As the future economists settle into their room, the manager reminisces about his college days. He figures he can cut the kids a better deal, since college kids are always short on cash.
He calls the bellhop (don’t ask, its just a riddle) over, and says, “I really only need to charge $25 for the room. Here’s five (5) $1 bills…please return this to our collegiate guests.”
So, the bellhop takes the money. He isn’t sure how to split the $5 amongst the 3 kids, and figures he ought to get something for his troubles, so he pockets $2 and gives the kids back $1 each.
So…instead of $10 each, they got a dollar back each, so they have now paid $9 each. 3 x $9= $27. Plus the Bellhop kept $2…so that’s a total of $29. What happened to the extra dollar???
You’re looking at it the wrong way in that last sentence. The kids have unwittingly paid the bellhop’s “tip” of $2 as well as the $25 room rate. As far as they know, the $27 they are paying is to cover a $27 room…$30 minus the $3 that was returned to them.
yep cold got it.
This is a classic case of misdirection. You are given a scenario with a bunch of numbers. You are then given a series of statements that use those numbers, and are intentionally misdirected to add the bellboy’s $2 to $27, thus creating the missing dollar. Not realizing that you have been tricked, you spend the rest of your life wondering where the dollar went.
Since this hotel with $30 hotel rooms had a bellman they undoubtedly had valet parking, so the valet got the missing dollar.
You nailed it! Its nice to know we’re hob-knobbing with some pretty intelligent folks here on FAOL. ;o)
My father-in-law started to tell this riddle to his niece and her boyfriend (both graduated from high school in the past 2 years)…When he asked them what 3 x $9 was, neither could anwer, so he discontinued the riddle.
Didn’t Abbott and Costello used to do a lot of routines like that?
This is kind of like proving you have 11 fingers. Supposing that a fellow has 10 fingers (counting thumbs). Start counting the fingers on his left hand, 1-2-3-4-5. Then start counting the fingers on his right hand, only this time count down from 10. 10-9-8-7-6. Then add the answers from each hand. 5 & 6 are 11.
If the bell hop kept $7 of the returned $10, that would be $9 per person or $27 total plus the $7 the bellhop keeps equals $34. So instead of losing $1, there’s an extra $4.
Abbott & Costello did “Who’s On First!”, one of the best vauderville routines ever, as part if the 1947 movie “The Naughty Nineties”
If you ever can listen to the original version of "Who’s On First! at the url site below…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M
In the monaloge, only eight of the nine players on the team are mentioned by their nickname and position they play. What is the position the baseball player not ever mentioned in the skit?
“Who’s” on 1st, “What” is on 2nd, and “I don’t know” is 3rd base… so go to the url site listed, and be ready to write down the other 6 players nicknames and their positions on the baseball team!
How many of you guys work in the Government Accounting Office?
who’s on second is funny til someone says analyze this.
Funny you should say that. I don’t, but a good friend of mine works in the Dept. of Defense Accounting. 