Bored? Mind turning to goo? Fancy an elementary brain-teaser?

Question

Calculator at the ready? There you go

3 students arrive at an inn in the middle of nowhere. As they are young and slightly pressed for funds, they ask for a basic room for three. The manager tells them it's 30 pounds per night (ok i know there no such prices it's just for simplicity), they pay off for one night and go upstairs.
Suddenly the manager remembers it's a saturday and they have a discount to 25 quid at weekends. He calles a boy and asks him to please return the 5 pounds to the lads in no.12.
The boy takes the money but as he slowly drags his feet upstairs he's trying to work out how he divides 5 quid between 3 people. then it dawns on him he may actually give them a pound each and pinch the 2. So he does.

Now the outome is: the lads paid J9 x 3= J27
the boy has J2
makes 29
THERE'S 1 QUID????

My math is fine thank you.
Yes I AM bored which is why i bothered to post it.
choose best answer option won't work for a few hours but sly got it so the rest of you may just take it easy

yeah sorry not just sly but he was the first

oh c'mon don't be such killjoys folks

thanks pcilliterate, made me chuckle, special award goes to you

Answer 1

Well, that same night, a young couple arrive at the same inn and book into room 11. They are charged £20, and both pay ten pounds.
Again the manager realises his error (that newlyweds get a discount), and sends the same lad with the five pounds refund. The cheeky devil decides to pinch three pounds and gives the couple a pound back each, so:

The couple pay: 9 x 2 = 18
The boy has: 3
Makes: 21

So, there is your missing quid!

Answer 2

You are counting two different quantities and treating them as the same thing; you are counting the boy's cut twice: once in the 2/3 quid that each guest contributed, and again when you count the fact that he has a total of two quid. An accurate way of stating the end result is thus:
the lads paid J9 x 3= J27
the boy has J2 of that J27 *that is not being given to management*
Management recieves J27 - J2 = J25, the correct rate.

Answer 3

Not this question again, I am sick of it:

it's a trick question, actually. the girl is holding two, yes, but it's not 27 paid PLUS two, it's twenty seven MINUS two to get 25, the actual amount paid. In other words, the question rellies on the fact that you'll hone in on 30 dollars as the amount paid, when its not. if you're trying to add up to thirty, its 9*3 to get 27, plus the three dollars the hotel gave back and the two dollars the girl holds in her hands comes out of the 27 paid (since the hotel certainly didnt tip her for such a screw-up)

Answer 4

The guys have 28 because they paid 28 pounds not 27. they were suppost to pay 25 pounds but were given back 3 pounds from the 30 they paid leaving 2 for the boy.

Answer 5

The boys £2 is the difference between the £27 the students have paid (once the boy has given each of them their £1 refund) and the £25 actual cost.

Answer 6

That is tricky im thinking about it as i type, just waiting for the blatantly obvious answer to come to me.....
Eh.... The office has 25, The boy has 2, the lads have 3. THe lads paid 27. the answer isnt 27+2=29, its that only 25 is neccesary and 27-2=25. phew. almost looked silly there

Answer 7

3 travelers sign up at a inn and are advised that their rooms will value $10 each so that they pay $30. Later the clerk realizes that he made a mistake and must have in ordinary words charged them $25. He provides a bellboy $5 to go back to them even with the undeniable fact that the bellboy is deceptive and provides them each in ordinary words $a million, conserving $2 for himself. So the boys actual spent $27 and the bellboy saved $2. What befell to the different dollar of the unique $30?

Answer 8

At a guess:
You don't add the £2 to the £27, you minus it to get back down to £25, which is what they paid. Your mathematics is incorrect.

Answer 9

Well done. I'm a bit concerned tho that anyone would need a calculator for this!!

Answer 10

Down the back of the sofa.