3 men walk into a hotel and ask for a room for the night. The manager says its 30 pound for this room, 10 pound a head. The men pay and go to their rooms.
Later, the manager realises there has been a mistake and that the room should only be 25 pound. So he gives 5 pound coins to the bell boy and tells him to give them to men. The bell boy thinks it will be hard to split 5 coins between 3 men, so he gives the men back 1 pound each and keeps two pound.

So, 25 pounds, plus 2 pounds the bell boy has, plus the 3 pound the men got back equals 30 pounds.

BUT if the men got 1 pound back then they paid 9 pounds each, 3x9 = 27 + 2 pound the bell boy kept, where is the missing pound?

:D

BAM

The manager has it.

old one,
the last equation is wrong (not in algebraic terms of course, but a wrong application of the circumstances [img]smile.gif[/img] )
[SPOILER]
<font color=#3D2F1B>There is no missing pound.
The men actually paid too much, because the bellboy kept two pounds, so
3*9=27 their reduced share (8.33 pounds each => 25) + the money the bellboy kept (2 pounds)
27-2=25 the reduced price
</font>
[/SPOILER]
BTW
"If you think you're smart,
...
you're probably not" :D

[ 11-12-2003, 06:21 PM: Message edited by: Faceman ]

dunno if it's uncool to debunk these riddles, so...

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the trick is at the end. you dont add the 2 to 27, you subtract it. the men paid 27 (3x9), of which 25 went to the hotel and 2 to the bellboy: 25+2=27.

It should be -2 pounds in the end line, because the men gave their 2 pounds to the bell boy. Thus, it is deduced from the amount 3x9. 25 is the total paid for the room, so that fits,.One should add three pounds because that's what they got back for their ten pounds.

<font color=gold>
LoL! Thanks for the info sultan, the riddle had me pinned down, I already opened my window ....... :D
</font>

I saw the title of this thread and thought... uhmm, no, never said I did... [img]smile.gif[/img]

Im quite stupid i havent been to school in 3 days lol!!!