Help me with this puzzle!

[Descartes]

"here's 3 guys who stay in a hotel for a night, and the owner charges them $30. so each of the guys fork out $10 each
the owner changes his mind later and decided to charge them $25, so he asks the bellboy to give back the $5 to the three guys.
the bellboy gives the guy back $1 each and keep $2 for himself ... so effectively the guy paid $9 (9 x 3 = 27) .... and 27 + 2 != 30 ... so where did the $1 go?"

Someone had given that to me, and I think I've narrowed down the answer, but I can't seem to explain it.

Ideas?

 

[BigToque]

The guys paid 30 to the guy at the front.

right now the guy at the front owes $5 to the guys. The bellhop gives each guy $1 dollar back., and keeps $2 for himself.

$25 for the night
$3 for the three guys
$2 for the bellhop

----
$30

 

[Descartes]

Yes, but, that's not the puzzle...

If you think about it, if the bellhop guy gave $1 back to each guy, they paid $9 each. The bellhop now has $2.

9 * 3 = 27 -- total paid by the guys for the room

27 + 2 = 29

There's still $1 "missing"

 

[Barrak]

No, the total paid for the room is now 25 + 2 for the bell boy = 27.

 

[Valhalla1]

you can't think of it like "effectively each guy paid $9" because then it doesn't come out logically. every dollar is accounted for as seen in the above "solution"

 

[Viper GTS]

Geez, not again.

The real equation should be:

$30 = $25 (the room cost) + $3 (the returned money) + $2 (the bellboy)

The amount they paid should not equal $30, since they each got $1 back it should equal $27. $25 for the room, $2 for the bellboy.

Viper GTS

 

[bigrash]

Hey Descartes

I see what you're saying. It does make sense. where did the dollar go then?

 

[Barrak]

Viper explained it well

so effectively the guy paid $9 (9 x 3 = 27) .... and 27 + 2 != 30 ... so where did the $1 go?"

The conclusion that the total should be 30 is WRONG. The new TOTAL is 27. 25 for the room and 2 for the bellboy.

 

[BigSmooth]

Yes, each man paid $8 1/3 for the room (25/3) plus they each "paid" the bellboy 2/3 dollars.
So each of them paid a total of $9, add in the $3 that they got back, and there you have it.

 

[twong82]

vipergts has the best explanation. In reality they only paid $27, 25 for room and 2 for bellboy. The question is tricky to understand though and the problem should not be tackled in the order of the events.

 

[Vincent]

The three guys each paid $9 for a total of $27. $25 of this went to the hotel and $2 went to the bellboy.

One would not expect 27 + 2 to be equal to 30. The $2 the bell boy took is already included in the $27 the guys paid.

 

[SCSIfreek]

Viper has got the answer. Simple question but was misunderstand by Descartes