Hotel Room, Bellboy and the Missing Dollar

3 men go into a hotel. The man behind the desk says a room is $30 so each man pays $10 and goes to the room.


A while later the man behind the desk realized the room was only $25 so he sent the bellboy to the 3 guys' room with $5. On the way the bellboy couldn't figure out how to split $5 evenly between 3 men, so he gave each man a $1 and kept the other $2 for himself.


This meant that the 3 men each paid $9 for the room, which is a total of $27 add the $2 that the bellboy kept = $29. Where is the other dollar?


The short answer:

There is no missing dollar. The men spent $27. Of which $25 went on the room and $2 went to the light fingered bell boy. You can not add the $2 the bellboy has to the $27 the men spent as this $2 actually comes out of the $27 the men spent, the other $25 going on the room.


Put another way consider how the $30 breaks down:

● $25 — room
● $3 (3x $1) — back to the men
● $2 — Bellboy