3 F in a Y

A fellow Puzzle Page reader has been told that there are 3  F in a Y.

Can you replace F with a word that starts with the letter 'F' and replace Y with a word that starts with the letter 'Y' to solve the puzzle?

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?

12 N on the F of a C

A reader of this page asks:

"I've been given a puzzle where I have to find words that fit in place of the single capital letters in this sentence:

There are 12 N on the F of a C.

The single letters are to be replaced with words that start with the provided letter."


I'm sure most of you can figure it out quite quickly. As for the reader who asked, if you try timing how long it takes to figure it out, I'm sure you'll figure it out a bit more quickly.

Shingles and Apples

There is an old story of a trader who put into Philadelphia with a boat load of shingles, some of which had been damaged in passage. He was asked by a Quaker merchant what the price was for the shingles.

"They are $10 a bundle," he replied, "if you choose the the bundles and $5 a bundle if I choose them."

The merchant thought for a minute and said, "Captain, I will buy your whole cargo, and you may choose the bundles."


The following puzzle involves a similar principle:

A man had an apple stand and sold his larger apples at three for a dollar and his smaller apples at five for a dollar. When he had just thirty apples of each size left to sell, he asked his son to watch the stand while he had lunch. When he came back from lunch the apples were all gone and the son gave his father $15. The father questioned his son.

"You should have received $10 for the thirty large apples and $6 for the thirty small apples, making $16 dollars in all."

The son looked surprised. "I am sure I gave you all the money I received and I counted the change most carefully. It was difficult to manage without you here, and as there were an equal number of each sized apple left, I sold them all at the average price of four for $1. Four goes into sixty fifteen times so I am sure $15 is correct."

Where did the missing $1 go?