Puzzle/maths Question

[smudge 11]

can anyone answer this please,3 men order a meal and work out that it will be £30 so they gave the waiter £10 each. the waiter adds up the bill to £25 so wondering how to split the remaining £5 between the 3 men,he decided to pocket £2 for a tip and gave the men £1 each back therefore this meant the men had paid £9 each for their meal.3x £9 = £27,plus £2 tip = £29, what has happened to the other pound? Hope you can understand this.

[Fibonacci]

Asked a few times previously
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Quizzes-and-Puzzles/Question1276442.html

[Baldric]

Here's the real sum;
£25 for Bill !
£3 for People !
£2 for Waiter ! So......

£25 + £3 + £2 = £30 so the pound hasn't gone anywhere."

[jim360]

This one ties me up in knots whenever I read it. Basically though it's gone nowhere because the puzzle is confusing people by mixing calculations together that have no right to be mixed up.

Total given to waiter: £30 (= 10 + 10 + 10)
Actual food bill: £25
Change returned: £ 3
Tip kept: £ 2

So £30 in, £30 out. No missing pound, and the £29 figure is therefore a mistake/ distraction.

[Jackdaw33]

This works better pre-decimal. They did not pay £9 for the meal, they paid £8.6.8. Times 3 = £25 + £3 change + £2 tip = £30.

[Jackdaw33]

Another way of looking at it is each man paid £9.6.8 in total =£28.

[New Judge]

Yes the men did not pay £9 each for the meal. They paid £25/3 = £8.33. They also paid £2/3 (= .67p) each for the tip. So they paid £9 each (£27) for the meal and the tip and got £3 change.

The confusion comes from the statement "they paid £9 each for their meal". They didn't.