An old one but will still puzzle some no doubt

[Greedo]

3 men go into a hotel. the man behind the desk said the room is £30.00 so

each man paid £10.00 and went to the room.

a while later the man behind the desk realized the room was only £25.00

so he sent the bellboy to the 3 guys' room with £5.00

on the way the bellboy couldn't figure out how to split £5.00 evenly

between 3 men, so he gave each man a £1.00 and kept the other £2.00 for

himself.

this meant that the 3 men each paid £9.00 for the room, which is a total

of £27.00, add the £2.00 that the bellboy kept = £29.00

where is the other pound?

 

[PaulB]

Seems a bit suspicious to me. Three men going into the same hotel room? Did it have three beds or just one big one? What did they plan to do in there? Were they "good with colours"? Did one of them have a lisp? Did they have any luggage? The hotel was only £30 yet it had a "bellboy"? Was he in on it?

 

[snapper_37]

 

[ianrauk]

That's becasue only £27 changed hands, the hotel £25 & the bell boy £2 - the guests kept £3.00 = £30

 

[bonj2]

it's a question of accounting principles of not trying to compare apples with oranges.
basically it lies in the fact that you shouldn't be trying to get it to ad dup to £30.

 

[4F]

Having already agreed a room rate of £ 30 and being paid for this why an earth would he want to give them £ 5 back afterwards ?

 

[accountantpete]

As an accountant I get mysterious black holes in my accounts all the time so i've given up worrying about them but i suspect that the missing £1 is because the 3 guests have each been overcharged by 33.3p.

 

[beanzontoast]

As an accountant I get mysterious black holes in my accounts all the time so i've given up worrying about them but i suspect that the missing £1 is because the 3 guests have each been overcharged by 33.3p.

Pete - that only accounts for 99.9p.

 

[Mr Pig]

Never mind the pound. I'd want to know why the thieving little B' bell boy pocketed two!

 

[accountantpete]

Pete - that only accounts for 99.9p.

The other penny is probably on the floor but being really rich these days I only bother to pick up silver and above

I thought my ship had really come in the other day when I spied a wad of notes on the floor, so I put my foot on them,checked to see that no-one was looking and quickly stuffed them in my pocket. When I got home they turned out to be £40 notes re a stores promotion! What a bummer - I was thinking glorious thoughts of a new carbon frame etc.

 

[yenrod]

Seems a bit suspicious to me. Three men going into the same hotel room? Did it have three beds or just one big one? What did they plan to do in there? Were they "good with colours"? Did one of them have a lisp? Did they have any luggage? The hotel was only £30 yet it had a "bellboy"? Was he in on it?

 

[FBOAB]

Ah, I get it now!

 

[adscrim]

Each man has not paid £9, if the bell boy kept £2 then this leaves £28.

28/3 is not 9

the bill (25) plus the money from the bell boy (3) =28

Very good though Greedo, good play on words and almost had me for a moment!

Each man handed over £10 and received £1 back so did pay £9. Total paid for the room is £27 of which the cashier has £25 and the Bellboy has £2.

 

[Wolf04]

I got a headache so googled it, apparently it's a A Semantic Fallacy.
I haven't had one of those since they invented viagra

 

[Flyingfox]

I got a headache so googled it, apparently it's a A Semantic Fallacy.
I haven't had one of those since they invented viagra

..isn't Google just wonderful