A number riddle - where did the £1 go??

Factual Questions
#1

Somebody told me this riddle and ive been trying to work it out for weeks…

3 men are staying at a hotel and they want to hire a pool table… they ask the porter to go get one for them. They think that it would be roughly £30 to hire so they each give the porter £10.
The porter goes to get the table and it turns out to be only £25. Because the 3 men dont know the price the porter decides to get himself some cigarettes with the change - thats £2, and so he’s left with another £3 so he gives each of the men £1 back so the men have each paid £9…

3 x 9 = 27 = total that the men paid
27 + 2 (for cigs) =29

Where did the other £1 go???!???!?? :confused:

Ive tryed working this out from the beginning and also working backward from the end nd im still non the wiser!

Can anyone shed any light?
I apolgize if this has been mentioned before, im new here… hello everyone. :smiley:

#2

The answer is here:

http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rhp/Riddles/answer7.htm

#3

Ahh…thanks batsto.

Its all become clear now :smiley: :cool:

#4

I am not sure I get the riddle. The men paid a total of 27 which is 25 for the table and 2 for the smokes. Where’s the problem?

#5

The men actually paid £27 for the table as the porter overcharged them plus the £2 for the cigs thats £29

the problem was they started with £30… but as batso showed the starting amount is irrellevant.

#6

>> The men actually paid £27 for the table as the porter overcharged them plus the £2 for the cigs thats £29

Sorry but no. They paid a total of 27 of which 25 went for the table and 2 for the smokes.

#7

Net result: Of the original 30 pounds…

25 went for the pool table
2 went for the bellboy’s cigarettes
3 went back to the men.

30 pounds altogether. Where’s the mystery?

#8

I’ve seen this riddle, and it pisses me off. The riddle contains a deliberate falsehood in how it presents the math to create a phantom missing dollar.

It’s in this line:

This should be

25 (for the table) + 2 (for cigs) = 27 (total paid)

but when you give the correct math, there’s no illusory missing dollar and no riddle.

#9

There are good answers here, and here’s a link to some more:

http://www.mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.missing.dollar.html

(I volunteer at Dr. Math, so I like to cite it when possible.)

#10

An American version (dollars, not pounds) was discussed by Cecil:
Riddle: The 3 guys, the bellhop, and the missing buck

#11

ok… woah, you have no idea how stupid i feel… :frowning:

i really fell for that un…it seems so obviously clear now

… i think its best to let this thread sink into the oblivion… i might as well have started a thread labelled “i cant add up”
:rolleyes:

#12

Is it just me, or does batsto’s link look strangely like Cecil’s answer? Cecil copying! What has the world come to! :wink:

#13

This is one of those questions where you can read the subject line and instantly know what the thread is about.

Nothing to add, just passing through.

#14

well, obviously if you’ve heard it before… I cant imagine many people who havnt heard it before instantly knowing what its about :smiley: