This one has been around forever, at least since I was a kid. The internet just makes it easier to spread around.

Three men go into a motel. The desk clerk said the room was $30, so each man paid $10 and went to the room. A while later, the desk clerk realized the room was only $25, so he sent the bellboy to the three guys' room with $5. On the way, the bellboy couldn't figure out how to split $5 evenly between three men, so he gave each man $1 and kept the other $2 for himself.

This meant that the 3 men each paid $9 for the room, which is a total of $27. Add to that the $2 the bellboy kept and the total is $29. Where is the other dollar?

If you find yourself stumped, Snopes has the explanation.

augman7518 (imported) wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2009 6:19 pm This one has been around forever, at least since I was a kid. The internet just makes it easier to spread around.

Three men go into a motel. The desk clerk said the room was $30, so each man paid $10 and went to the room. A while later, the desk clerk realized the room was only $25, so he sent the bellboy to the three guys' room with $5. On the way, the bellboy couldn't figure out how to split $5 evenly between three men, so he gave each man $1 and kept the other $2 for himself.

This meant that the 3 men each paid $9 for the room, which is a total of $27. Add to that the $2 the bellboy kept and the total is $29. Where is the other dollar?

If you find yourself stumped, Snopes has the explanation.

Your maths are poor; at $25 for three, each man paid $8.33333333... for the room; add the dollar each from the bell boy and each spent $9.33333.... Multiply by three and you get $28. The bell boy pockets $2 and you have accounted for all $30.

augman7518 (imported) wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2009 6:19 pm This one has been around forever, at least since I was a kid. The internet just makes it easier to spread around.

Three men go into a motel. The desk clerk said the room was $30, so each man paid $10 and went to the room. A while later, the desk clerk realized the room was only $25, so he sent the bellboy to the three guys' room with $5. On the way, the bellboy couldn't figure out how to split $5 evenly between three men, so he gave each man $1 and kept the other $2 for himself.

This meant that the 3 men each paid $9 for the room, which is a total of $27. Add to that the $2 the bellboy kept and the total is $29. Where is the other dollar?

If you find yourself stumped, Snopes has the explanation.

HUH? What am I missing here? THERE IS NO "MISSING DOLLAR" IN THIS.

Start with $25, add the TRHEE DOLLARS that the bellhop gave, and you have TWENTY EIGHT dollars, plus the two in the bellhop's pocket and you have $30.

augman7518 (imported) wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2009 6:19 pm This one has been around forever, at least since I was a kid. The internet just makes it easier to spread around.

Three men go into a motel. The desk clerk said the room was $30, so each man paid $10 and went to the room. A while later, the desk clerk realized the room was only $25, so he sent the bellboy to the three guys' room with $5. On the way, the bellboy couldn't figure out how to split $5 evenly between three men, so he gave each man $1 and kept the other $2 for himself.

This meant that the 3 men each paid $9 for the room, which is a total of $27. Add to that the $2 the bellboy kept and the total is $29. Where is the other dollar?

If you find yourself stumped, Snopes has the explanation.

It sounds nice but one of the statements is completely false.

It says "

augman7518 (imported) wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2009 6:19 pm This meant that the 3 men each paid $9 for the room

" which is false because $5/3 is not $1. Therefore They did not pay $9, they paid less than that. They paid $25/3.

and they got back $5 which was split into $3 one dollar bills and $2 tip. The tip comes to $2/3 for each man, not $1.

My head hurts...way to much math!:-\

Each man paid $10 ($30). Because $8.33 ($25) was the actual price, each was due a refund of $1.67. However, each only got $1 back, so they paid $27, and the bellboy got $2. Oh, I give up.

A little over 50 years ago, shortly after I got my first job as a clerk in a factory that made stationery and office equipment, there used to be a girl who came round selling us cups of tea each morning and afternoon. A cup of tea cost fourpence ha'penny (OK, four and a half old pence). So I gave her a sixpenny bit. This was in the old days, when we had 12 pence to a shilling and 20 shillings to a pound.

She gave me a penny ha'penny change. Correct, actually. But I said Hey, this is wrong!

"Wot?" she said.

"The tea costs fourpence ha'penny", I pointed out.

"Yeah!"

"I gave you sixpence, and you gave me a penny ha'penny change!"

"Yeah!"

"Well, if it were five pence, you'd have given me one penny change, right?"

"Yeah!"

"But it's another half pence on top of that. So you owe me another penny, right?"

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry!"

And she gave me another penny.

I did own up, and gave her back the penny. But at the time it was a bit of fun!

Sop trying to work it out and have a look down the back of the sofa.

Old Greebo (imported) wrote: Sat Jun 06, 2009 10:28 am Each man paid $10 ($30). Because $8.33 ($25) was the actual price, each was due a refund of $1.67. However, each only got $1 back, so they paid $27, and the bellboy got $2. Oh, I give up.

...!

However, each only got $1 back, so they paid $27, and the bellboy got $2.

NO!, that's the mistake it's not $30 minus $3 for $27... It's #25 plus $3 for $28 and then plus $2 for $30.

OR it is $30 minus $3 for $27 and then minus $2 (the tip) for $25.

Don't mix multiplication/division and addition/subtraction that way. It's results in a mistake.