3 men go into a restaurant

[noxlumos]

3 men go into a restaurant. The bill comes to �30 so they pay the waiter �10 each. The maitre 'd informs the waiter that he has overcharged them and that it should only be �25 and gives him 5 X �1 coins to give them back.The waiter feels they have been mean in not giving him a tip so pockets �2 and gives them back �1 each, meaning they have paid �9 each for their meal.

3X �9=�27 plus the �2 that the waiter pocketed =�29

so where is the remaining �1?

[dynamicduo]

If the cost of the meal is �25 then this works out at �8.33 per person. Having paid �30 in total this leaves 1.67 per person for a refund. They take �1 each leaving 3 x 0.67 over which makes the �2 tip

[Quizmonster]

Looked at from a slightly different angle...
This is really a �problem' with the way the situation is worded, not a problem of arithmetic. The three men paid 27 for the meal, but only if you add in the 2 the waiter kept. That 2 should be subtracted from - not added to - the 27, which gives the room cost of 25. Or, the restaurant has 25, the waiter has 2 and the men have 3, which equals 30, which is exactly where you started.

[Quizmonster]

'Room cost'? That is 'meal cost'...I obviously wrote 'room' because this so-called problem is ususally presented as three men hiring a hotel room rather than buying a meal. Silly me!

[AGENT X]

the reason there is a pound missing is in the equasion, they rounded up to nine, when actually the men only should be paying 8.33 pounds each. times this number by 3 and you get 24.99/25.00 not twenty seven. give each man back 1 and you get 28 plus the two that the waiter took , thus being 29.9999999/ 30.00

[Busker]

This `Puzzle` has appeared on here so many times that perhaps it deserves it`s own heading.

[Quizmonkey]

Anyone going to dredge up the other old chestnut about the quiz show host with the three doors? That one must be due for another round of answers we've all read a million times before too.

[Lakeslass]

Sorry Quizmonkey. I did look up the previous questions but must have missed this one.

Thankyou to the rest of you. I had actually worked out the maths, but just thought that perhaps there was something odd in the wording. Of course I knew that the meal had cost �25, the tip �2 and the change �3 i.e. �30. I shall refuse to listen to riddles and puzzles in future.