Can You Solve The Missing Dollar Riddle From The 1930's?
Can You Solve The Missing Dollar Riddle From The 1930's?
Perceptive thinkers can easily figure out this famous riddle.
Perceptive thinkers can easily figure out this famous riddle.
This famous riddle dates back to the 1930s, but similar versions are much older.
Three people check into a motel room. The receptionist says the bill is $30, so each guest pays $10. Later the receptionist realizes the bill should only be $25. To rectify this, he gives the bellhop $5 to return to the guests.
On the way to the room, the bellhop realizes that he cannot divide the money equally. As the guests didn't know the total of the revised bill, the bellhop decides to give each guest $1 and keep $2 as a tip for himself.
Each guest got $1 back, so each guest only paid $9, bringing the total paid to $27. Since the bellhop has $2, $27 + $2 = $29.
BUT THE GUESTS ORIGINALLY HANDED OVER $30.
SO WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REMAINING $1?
NAILED IT!
NAILED IT!
Way to go, you got it right!
You’re a perceptive thinker. You have an unusual alertness, and you can easily connect seemingly unrelated ideas. You immediately knew that in order to obtain a sum that totals to the original $30, every dollar must be accounted for regardless of its location.
The trick in this famous riddle is to realize that the $27 already includes the bellhop's tip. To add the $2 to the $27 would be to double-count it. The three guests' cost of the room, including the bellhop's tip, is $27. Each of the three has $1 in his pocket, totaling $3. When added to the $27 revised cost of the room (including tip to the bellhop), the total is $30.
WRONG!
WRONG!
You got it wrong...
In order to obtain a sum that totals to the original $30, every dollar must be accounted for regardless of its location.
The trick in this famous riddle is to realize that the $27 already includes the bellhop's tip. To add the $2 to the $27 would be to double-count it. The three guests' cost of the room, including the bellhop's tip, is $27. Each of the three has $1 in his pocket, totaling $3. When added to the $27 revised cost of the room (including tip to the bellhop), the total is $30.
SO WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REMAINING $1?