
Tom, Dick, and Harry are attending a conference together out of town and are staying overnight at a
nearby hotel. The hotel has a special for conference attendees and the clerk charges them $30 for the
room. Each takes out a $10 bill and pays the clerk. The men then go to their room. When the manager
returns to the front desk, she realizes the clerk has overcharged the three guests, the special rate
is $25. The manager asks the clerk to return $5 to the guests.
As the clerk walks to the room, he realizes that he can't evenly split $5 among three people, so he
decides to give each of the three guests $1 each and illegally pocket the remaining $2. When the clerk
arrives at the guests' room, he tells them that they have been overcharged by $3 and he hands them each
$1.
So, Tom, Dick, and Harry have each paid $9 for a total of $27 and the clerk has $2 in his pocket. That
makes $29. However, the guests intially paid $30. Where's the "missing" dollar?
ANSWER:
There is no missing dollar (see below).
EXPLANATION: In the end, the guests paid a total of $27. Of that $27, $25 is with the
cashier and $2 is with the clerk. Each of the original $30 dollars is accounted for. The manager has
$25 of the original money at the front desk, the guests have $1 each, and the clerk has $2.
Do you have a
suggestion for this puzzle (e.g. something that should
be mentioned/clarified in the question or solution, bug, typo, etc.)?