Saturday, January 26, 2008

The Motel Room

Three businessmen are in Cleveland for a convention. Since they are on a budget, they decide to share a room at a motel that charges $30 per night ($10 per man). The motel manager is in a good mood that night and decides to reimburse some of the money. He gives the bell boy $5 and tells him to give it to the three men. However, the bell boy is dishonest and figures that you cannot divide $5 evenly among three men, so he gives back $1 to each man and keeps the other $2 for himself.

Now, the businessmen have each paid $9 for the room, or $27 all together, and the bell boy has $2, for a total of $29.

What happened to the other $1?

2 comments:

  1. The manager reimbursed $5, making the room total $25 not $30.

    The men paid $9 each, $27 in total. That's $25 for the room and $2 for the bell boy.

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  2. You're right.

    The problem is that: the sentence "the bell boy has $2" does not mean the bell boy pay $2 for rent.
    It should be subtract by 2, instead of plus by 2.

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