The missing dollar at the hotel

Question

Three guests share a hotel room and pay 10 dollars each, 30 in total. Later the clerk realises the room only costs 25 dollars and sends the bellboy up with 5 dollars. The bellboy cannot split 5 three ways, so he gives each guest 1 dollar back and keeps 2 dollars for himself.

Now each guest has paid 9 dollars, a total of 27. The bellboy has 2. That makes 29. But the guests originally handed over 30.

Where is the missing dollar?

Accepted Answer

There is no missing dollar. The sum 27 + 2 adds a payment to a part of that same payment, which is meaningless. Where the money is. Follow the 30 dollars. The hotel has 25. The bellboy has 2. The guests have 3 (one each). 25 + 2 + 3 = 30. Everything is accounted for. Where the puzzle cheats. The guests paid 27 in total. Of that 27, the hotel kept 25 and the bellboy kept 2. So the 2 dollars is already inside the 27. Adding it again is double counting. The correct statements are either "27 paid = 25 to the hotel + 2 to the bellboy" or "30 handed over = 27 paid + 3 refunded". The puzzle mixes th…

The missing dollar at the hotel

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