Curly Posted April 7, 2003 Three friends check into a hotel for the night and the clerk tells them the bill is £30, payable in advance. So, they each pay the clerk £10 and go to their room. A few minutes later, the clerk realises he has made an error and overcharged the trio by £5. He asks the bagboy to return £5 to the 3 friends who had just checked in. The bagboy sees this as an opportunity to make £2 as he reasons that the three friends would have a tough time dividing £5 evenly among them; so he decides to tell them that the clerk made a mistake of only £3, giving a pound back to each of the friends. He pockets the leftover £2 and goes home for the day! Now, each of the three friends gets a pound back, thus they each paid £9 for the room which is a total of £27 for the night. We know the bagboy pocketed £2 and adding that to the £27, you get £29, not £30 that was originally spent. Where did the other pound go? :confused: What do you think? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
N.O.R.F Posted April 7, 2003 ok so they £25 they get £3 back ie 3=25=28 they guy keeps £2 ie 28+2=30! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
N.O.R.F Posted April 7, 2003 or they pay £30 get £3 back (30-3=27) the guy keep the £2! what missin pound? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Curly Posted April 7, 2003 looooooooool...you spoil sport, I could have had them wondering for day on end! The facts in this riddle are clear: There is an initial £30 charge. It should have been £25, so £5 must be returned and accounted for. £3 is given to the 3 friends, £2 is kept by the bagboy - there you have the £5. The trick to this riddle is that the addition and subtraction are done at the wrong times to misdirect your thinking - and quite successfully for most. Each of the 3 friends did indeed pay £9, not £10, and as far as the friends are concerned, they paid £27 for the night. But we know that the clerk will tell us that they were charged only £25 and when you add the £3 returned with the £2 kept by the bagboy, you come up with £30. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
N.O.R.F Posted April 7, 2003 cant fool a quantity surveyor love!!!!lol sorry!!!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Curly Posted April 7, 2003 Well this is probably the shortest-lived post ever, so I’m gonner try and save it with another riddle. (And please don’t sabotage this one, northern; give the poor souls a chance!) You have 9 marbles: 8 of them weigh 1 ounce each; 1 weighs 1.1 ounce. The 9 marbles are all uniform in size, appearance and shape. You have access to a balance scale containing 2 trays - you may use the balance 2 times. You must determine which of the 9 marbles is the heavier one using the balance only 2 times. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
