3 guys go into a hotel to rent a room. The hotel worker tells them that a room will cost them $30. The 3 guys put in $10 each, pay and go up to the room. A little while later the hotel manager realizes that the worker over charged for the room, and should have only charged them $25. He calls over the bellhop and gives him $5 in one dollar bills and tells the bellhop to return the money to the 3 guys. On the way up, the bellhop can't figure out how to divide $5 into 3, so instead he puts $2 into his pocket and gives each guy one dollar back. Since each guy paid $10 for the room, and they each got back $1, then they paid a total of $9 each. ($10-$1=$9).So now, 3 guys paid $9 each for their room which equals $27 (9x3=27). Since the bellhop put $2 into his pocket, what happened to the other dollar? ($27+$2=$29, and $30-$29=$1)

 

My head hurts!!![8D][:@]

 

He used it to get himself a coke from the coke machine! Problem solved!

 

Damn its a frickin mistrey....

 

$27-$2 = $25.00...You don't add the $2 back in,it wassubtractedfrom the original $5.

 

Ok - now I'm confused!

If the bellhop had $5, pocketed $2, gave each of the 3 guy's a dollar. There is no lost $1.00 ... 2 + 3 = 5.


Somethings not adding up here ... [&:]

 

That's right Paige..now..you have 2+3-30 = 25.

 

I knew I was s-m-r-t. [8D]

 

The puzzle is attempting to introduce confusion between assets and liabilities, debits and credits.The way to introduce the confusion is to suggest that the boy's $2 debit goes also to the hotel as a $2 debit, which is of course wrong.The fact that the boy is a representative of the hotel is a compelling reason to perceive them as one entity.It's also irrelevant...a master touch!In fact, the boy's $2 debit is of course a $2 credit to the hotel.

So, the transactions:
1.debit hotel 30, credit businessmen 30.
2.credit hotel 5, debit bellboy 5.
3.credit bellboy 3, debit businessmen 3.

Total assets to hotel =25.Total assets to bellboy =2.Totall assets overall = 27.Total liabilities to businessmen =27. All in balance...the magic of accounting [&o]

(i.e. the dudes paid out $27 total...$25 to the hotel and $2 to the shady bellhop. the $30 is irrelavant once the price is determined to be $25)

at leastthat 'cpa' is paying off on riddles and puzzles...ha!

 

Hummbob, your head is hurting mine is spinning.