Three friends pay $10 each ($30 total) for a room. The manager realizes the rate is $25 and gives $5 to the bellhop to refund. The bellhop keeps $2 and returns $1 to each friend. Now each friend paid $9 (total $27), and the bellhop kept $2, making $29. Where is the missing dollar?
There is no missing dollar; the riddle's addition is misleading.
The $27 paid by the friends consists of $25 for the room and $2 kept by the bellhop. Adding the $2 bellhop tip to the $27 total double-counts the tip. The correct accounting is $27 paid = $25 room + $2 tip, plus $3 refunded = $30.
About this riddle
Math riddles hide a calculation inside a short story. Pull out the numbers, work out what is being asked, and watch for a trick such as a unit change.
Difficulty: Hard. More like this: Math riddles with answers or try Target 24 for a different kind of puzzle.
More math riddles
A barrel of water weighs 60 pounds. What must you put into the barrel to make it weigh 40 pounds?
I have two sisters. Each of my sisters has two brothers. How many children are in total in our family?
A bag contains 3 red marbles and 2 blue marbles. Without looking, what is the minimum number of marbles you must draw to guarantee getting at least one red marble?
I am a positive integer. When you cube me and then subtract me from the result, the answer is a multiple of 6. What am I? (Give the smallest possible value greater than 1)
A bag contains red, blue, and green marbles. There are twice as many red marbles as blue ones, and half as many green marbles as blue ones. If there are 28 marbles in total, how many are blue?
Divide 30 by half and add 10. What is the final result?