Mathematical riddle-The hunting lodge and dishonest bellhop.
The pile into 1 of their 67 Chevys and head on up interstate 29. After driving 42 miles, they buy 5 gallons of gas and continue on their trip for another 3 hours. When they arrive (at 4 in the afternoon), they tell the clerk that the last time they were here was in 1994 and they have a great time in room 104. The desk manager tells them that the room rate has increased since 1994 to 30 dollars a night and that room 104 wasn't available, but room 204 was. Each man takes a 10 dollar bill from their pocket and hands it to the desk manager, and turn to go up to their room on the 2nd floor. The manager asks them if they need help with their bags, pointing to a seamy looking 20 something bellhop smiling in the corner. The men say no, they each only have 2 bags 1 with luggage and 1 with their 30-06 rifles. A few minutes later, the desk manager, an honest man, realizes that these men had reservations at the old $25 rate, and that the hotel policy is to honor reserved prices. So he calls over the 20-something bellhop and tells him: "I've overcharged those nice hunters. They had reservations for $25 but I charged them $30. Take these 5 1-dollar bills up to the men in room 204." The bellhop starts up the stairs, but remember the men who had just deprived him of a couple of dollars in tips, so he thinks: "Look, there is three of them, and 5 of these 1 dollar bills. I'll just take me 2 of them 1 dollar bills and give each of them back 1 of the 3 remaining dollars" which he does. So now each man has paid $9 and the bellhop has stolen $2. 3 times nine is 27 plus 2 = 29. Where is the 30th dollar? |
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| BLAAAHHH!!!
that is the sound of an English majors brain blowing up over a math problem! thanks Ron.... (Mumble grumble stupid math) |
| Umm... ok i'm gonna try again. the 25$ tab divided 3 ways is $8.33 (rounding) If each guy paid 9$, then they each still were owed an extra $.67 roughly. $.67 by 3 is $2.00 (rounding down) which is what the bellhop took from the 5$ back... But I don't know where the "missing" dollar is.
Well... anyone? Bueller? |
| No idea... |
It was probably a service fee.  |
| Same concept as the telephone surprise; it's all about the distractions. |
| If the hotel kept $25 + $3 given back to the men + $2 pocketed by the bellhop = $30. |
| The distraction is that the Bellhop took the $2. So actually the men paid $27 for the room. $25 Fee + $2 stolen = $27 + $3 change = $30.
The $9 each Ron mentions at the end includes the bellhops take!!! |
| Yay! You're both correct. The way I like to say it is like this:
"There is no 30th dollar. The men paid $25 for the room and $2 for theft. That's $27. Each man paid $9, three nines are 27." But you can explain it anyway you like. The question itself is the distraction. The person crafting the riddle did it in such a way as to make it sound reasonable. Think about that the next time a politician tells you what s/he thinks is important. Is it really? They have very smart people crafting their messages, don't they? |
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