Try solving the following puzzle before looking at the solution!

Missing Dollar Puzzle

Can you figure out what happened to the missing dollar?

For reference, I have included the text of the puzzle below as well as in the image.

Three people go to a hotel to stay the night, they ask how much to the person at the desk. The person at the desk says $10 each ($30). They hand over $10 each ($30) and go to the room. The person at the desk thinks they charged too much so they give the bellhop five $1 bills ($5) to give to the three people. On the way, the bellhop puts $2 in their pocket. The bellhop gives the people $3 back. Now they each paid $9 each not $10. Simple arithmetic, 3X9=27. The Bellhop kept $2, so 27+2=29.

What happened to the other dollar?

Source: https://mes.fm/puzzles/missing-dollar-puzzle

Solution

The puzzle asks to find the missing dollar, but is there actually a missing dollar? To understand what is going on, we can make a breakdown of the transactions:

The three customers give the hotel $30.
The hotel gives the bellhop $5.
The bellhop gives the customers $3.

This means that the three customers paid $27 total. The bellhop received $2 total and the hotel received $25 total. The total paid is $27 and the total received is $27. So, everything checks out and there is no missing dollar!

The puzzle involved an incorrect addition, namely $27 + $2 = $29. $27 is the total amount paid by the customers and $2 is the total amount received by the bellhop. There is no reason to add these numbers! And there is no missing dollar!

Source: https://mes.fm/puzzles/missing-dollar-puzzle/solution

New Puzzle: Find the Hidden 8

How fast can you find the hidden 8?

Source: https://mes.fm/puzzles/find-the-hidden-8

I will try to post the solution here in a month or so!

More Puzzles

The above puzzles were taken from my website and republished on the Hive blockchain.

For more puzzles, visit: https://mes.fm/puzzles