Trick question?

Question

Can anyone answer this question and provide me with a reason for such a scenario?

3 old ladies went to a restaurant for dinner. They do not know the final cost of the dinner but agreed to share the cost. So, each of them gives $10 to the waiter which adds up t0 $30.

The total cost of the meal is $25 and the waiter was given 5 $1 coin. Since the waiter is unable to give $5 equally to 3 old ladies, he took $2 as tips and returned $1 coin each to each old lady.

This means that the old ladies had paid $9 each and a total of $27 while the waiter took $2. The outcome is only $29, where did the $1 go to?

Answer 1

This puzzle is so ancient it started off as a question about hotel rates for a night's stay. These days hotels are slightly more expensive than that...

The flaw is that the $27 is going to the restaurant, while the $2 is going from the restaurant. Since they are opposite in nature they should be subtracted rather than added, giving $27 - $2 = $25 as the net income for the restaurant; or if you want the distribution of the funds it is $27 paid + $3 returned, or in more detail $25 paid for meal + $2 taken as tips + $3 returned.

Fundamentally, the last line is misleading because it adds the $27 and the $2 together with no justification whatsoever.

(Also see blighmaster's response for another good way of putting this point.)

If you're still not convinced, change the figures. Suppose the cost was $15 and they each paid $10 (didn't have anything smaller), and of the $15 change the waiter kept $9 and returned $2 each to the customers. So they each paid a net of $8 for a total of $24. Add that to the $9 the waiter kept and you get $33 - now instead of being $1 short we're $3 over. That's because the operation we're doing doesn't correlate to anything very meaningful!

Answer 2

The ladies paid 25 dollars for the meal and gave a 2 dollar tip. This totals 27 dollars. They each got a dollar back (that's 3 dollars) . 27+3 = 30.
In fact The 27 dollars the ladies paid includes the tip of 2 dollars and they quite rightly got 1 dollar each back. 27 + 1+1+1 = 30

Answer 3

Each Lady paid $9 and got $1 back. The dinner was $25 for the meal $2 in tips and $3 in change. You are looking at it from 2 different directions which will boggle the brain a bit.

Answer 4

The 3 women each paid $9 (10 - 1 returned)

total they paid = $27

of this the restaurant got $25 and the waiter got $2

25 + 2 = 27

there is no missing money

Answer 5

they paid $9 each which is $25 for the meal plus $2 tip for the waiter which equals $27

They all paid with a ten dollar bill, getting $1 each change = $3

$27 + $3 = $30

Answer 6

"This means that the old ladies had paid $9 each and a total of $27 "

But where are those $27? $25 is with the retaurant and $2 is with the waiter. You don't add those $2 AGAIN! You add what hasn't been accounted for: the $3 that the ladies have.

Answer 7

the £27 already pays the waiter's tip (£2) and the meal (£25), and the 3 £1 the old ladies get change make it up to £30.

Answer 8

it's best to separate the expenses from the money the ladies initially had

expenses = meal (25) + tip (2) = 27

the TIP is already part of what the ladies paid for -> $27
adding 2$again would DOUBLE COUNT the tip

to get the initial money add the total expenses to the change:

initial money = change(3) +(27)expenses = 30

change = 3

individual change =3 /3 =1 each

Answer 9

Yes
They paid 27
out of which 25 were to hotel and 2 as tips
where is the question of 29 and missing 1?

Answer 10

and like the hotel prices and the tip that the bell hop gave your math given here is flawed because if the meal was 25 dollars and he gave them back a dollar a piece and kept 2 for himself then they did not pay 9 dollars a piece and a total of 27 dollars it means that if you closely look at what you are saying there that you need to go back to math class and so does the person that came up with this