how does this add up??

[chassyp]

3 men go into a motel. the man behind the desk said the room is �30

so

each man paid �10 and went 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 pound?

[Quizmonster]

This is really a �problem' with the way the situation is worded, not a problem of arithmetic. The three men paid 27 for the room, but only if you add in the 2 the bell boy kept. That 2 should be subtracted from - not added to - the 27, which gives the room cost of 25. Looked at another way, the desk-man has 25, the bell boy has 2 and the men have3, which equals 30, which is exactly where you started.