Can You Solve This Math Riddle?

Three women friends went on a vacation in the Caribbean. To save money, they would share a hotel room.

The daily rate for the hotel room is $300.

Each woman paid $100, making up the $300. But the hotel manager decided to give the women a discount and charged only $250 for the room. He told a clerk to return $50 to the three women. The clerk pocketed $20 for himself, and gave the remaining $30 back to the three women.

Each woman got $10 back. Therefore, each woman actually paid $90 (100-10) to the hotel.

$90 x 3 = $270

$270 + the clerk’s $20 = $290

But the women originally gave the hotel $300.

Question: Where did the remaining $10 go?

Stumped?

Scroll down for the solution!

You’re stumped because you’ve been misled by how the question was posed to you.

Instead of looking at it as the three ladies actually paying $270, plus the $20 pocketed by the hotel clerk, thus equaling $290, which means $10 are uncounted for, the correct way to look at it is to start with the facts that we’ve been told:

• Fact #1: Each woman initially paid $100 each.
• Fact #2: Each woman got $10 back.
• That means each woman actually paid $90 each.
• In other words, altogether the women paid the hotel $270, not $300.
• Fact #3: The hotel only charged them for and kept $250.
• Fact #4: The hotel clerk stole $20.
• $20 + $250 = $270.
• There never was any “remaining $10″!

Another way to look at it is to look at what happened to the $300 that the 3 women originally paid the hotel:

• Hotel kept $250.
• Clerk stole $20.
• Women got $30 back.
• 250+20+30 = $300.
• Once again, there’s no “remaining $10″!

~Eowyn