The 33 1/3 second mystery # 22(?)

[scotty]

Not sure if #22's already been taken or not. Hell, not sure if this riddle's already out there somewhere - haven't gone through the whole forum yet. But here's one of my faves:

Three guys walk into a hotel and the desk clerk tells them the room is $30 for the night. They each cough up $10 and head to their room. A little while later the desk clerk realizes he's made a mistake and that the room should only be $25, so he sends the bellboy up with 5 $1 bills. On the way up the bellboy realizes that he's not going to be able to split $5 evenly 3 way, so he pockets $2 and gives each of the guys $1 back.

So, they've now each paid $9, right? 9x3 = $27 plus the $2 in the bellboys pocket is $29. Where's the other dollar?

[rodb]

basically your saying
10x3=30
30-25=5
5-3=2
and this does not agree with
9x3=27
27+2=30
the problem is the equation is set up wrong, you are not supposed to add two to get to the old total you are supposed to subtract 2 to get to the new total
t.f.
9x3=27
27-2=25 the amount that the hotel gets.

[kazoo]

Umm, Scotty-if you wish to start a mystery thread, couldn't you give a title of your own?

[scotty]

rodb - that's as close to a correct answer as any I've heard - to be honest, it still puzzles me a little

kazoo - my apologies, didn't realize the protocol - I'll come up with something of my own (thought you and rsl12's were similar, so stuck with the lingo)

[ChickenNinja]

It shouldn't puzzle you, it's just a riddle like "I've got 11 fingers. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 on this hand, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 on this hand. 11." It's misinformation.

[Spanxxx]

Where are these hotels without sales taxes? =D

It's an interesting word puzzle, but the key is : they paid $28 dollars for the room. $30 ($10 each) - $2 the bellboy kept = $28.

/realizes everyone KNOWS the answer. I had to type it out to clear it up for myself.

[Rangsk]

The puzzle makes the mistake of adding the bellhop's $2 tip TWICE to the $25 and ignores the $3 that went back to the patrons. So, obviously, $25 + bellhop's tip + bellhop's tip isn't going to be $20, since that's not the correct transaction.

[Paradise Lost]

I'm still thrown by this "extra dollar", they already paid $10 each.
The bell boy gives them a total of 3 dollars, pockets 2.
So basically the bell boy is screwing them out of two dollars, since
they were suppose to pay 25, they got 3, 28+2.

The weird part comes if you subtract the 3 given, like said in the
first reply, rather than adding it onto the 25.

Meh, that was bad explaining...

[nosuchuserexist]

I think it's just kinda silly. The bellboy kept $2 (theiving little fvcker) making the total amount paid out by the 3 men $28. technically they paid $9.333... each and got screwed by the bell boy whose sole responsibility was to give the group back the $5. He had neither the responsibility nor the authority to split the money evenly.

Whatever...feh.

[Grimlok]

***kicks bell boy in the nuts and takes $2***