2. The Waiter
Three men in a cafe order a meal the total cost of which is $15. They each contribute $5. The waiter takes the money to the chef who recognizes the three as friends and asks the waiter to return $5 to the men.
The waiter is not only poor at mathematics but dishonest and instead of going to the trouble of splitting the $5 between the three he simply gives them $1 each and pockets the remaining $2 for himself.
Now, each of the men effectively paid $4, the total paid is therefore $12. Add the $2 in the waiters pocket and this comes to $14.....where has the other $1 gone from the original $15?
Submitted by GmdAquaman · Added 1 January 2007
Solution:
The payments should equal the receipts. It does not make sense to add what was paid by the men ($12) to what was received from that payment by the waiter ($2)
Although the initial bill was $15 dollars, one of the five dollar notes gets changed into five ones. The total the three men ultimately paid is $12, as they get three ones back. So from the $12 the men paid, the owner receives $10 and the waiter receives the $2 difference. $15 - $3 = $10 + $2.
Comments (14)
I had an alternate solution for #2. I figured that the four poker players had come straight from work. With the occupations they each had, I thought they would have their names embroidered on their work shirts. Valid or flawed?
In the solution to Four Gallons, if you pour all but two gallons from the 5-gal. container, the container must show graduations of measurement. One would simply pour 4-gal. into the container.
The puzzle about the man who comes back from holiday and dies after eating at a restaurant is intriguing. Can you provide the answer or any hints?
There is a flaw in the wording of the question for The Waiter. Now, each of the men effectively paid $4, the total paid is therefore $12. This is wrong. If 5 dollars is going back, 10 dollars was paid. This is $3.33 each. One dollar back brings it to $4.33 each, not $4. Total paid was $13 with the waiter taking 2. No money goes missing at all.
There is a flaw in the wording of 'The Waiter'. The calculations regarding the total paid and the money returned are incorrect.
Some of the problems are exceptionally nice; the waiter is an example.
The Waiter is an exceptionally nice problem.
The answer for the Fanciful Lateral Thinking puzzle is inaccurate. The reason that the murdering sister cannot be punished is not because they are Siamese twins, but because they are conjoined twins.
In puzzle no. 2, the total amount paid by all three after the discount is $13, not $12. It's not a puzzle, just a game of words.
Is there any chance of adding harder riddles? I really enjoyed reading your page.
Question 2 answer is completely wrong. How did the men end up paying $12 dollars if they were to get $5 dollars back from $15? They ended up paying $10 dollars, got $3 dollars back and the waiter kept $2, which totals $15.
I like the proposed solution for puzzle 2, but consider this: the house the police raided was a firehouse, and the fireman must be on standby, so he is the only one wearing his costume.
The waiter puzzle is incorrect. The bill was 15. The cook kept 10. The waiter gave back a dollar to each man. 10 + 3 is 13 not 12. The additional 2 dollars kept by the waiter makes 15. No missing dollar just poor math skills by the puzzles creator.
The waiter puzzle is incorrect. The bill was 15. The cook kept 10. The waiter gave back a dollar to each man. 10 + 3 is 13 not 12. The additional 2 dollars kept by the waiter makes 15.
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