Riddles/Rätsel (English)

[XIR.croom]

Three friends check into a motel for the night and the clerk tells them the bill is $30, payable in advance. So, they each pay the clerk $10 and go to their room. A few minutes later, the clerk realizes he has made an error and overcharged the trio by $5. He asks the bellhop to return $5 to the 3 friends who had just checked in. The bellhop sees this as an opportunity to make $2 as he reasons that the three friends would have a tough time dividing $5 evenly among them; so he decides to tell them that the clerk made a mistake of only $3, giving a dollar back to each of the friends. He pockets the leftover $2 and goes home for the day! Now, each of the three friends gets a dollar back, thus they each paid $9 for the room which is a total of $27 for the night. We know the bellhop pocketed $2 and adding that to the $27, you get $29, not $30 which was originally spent. Where did the other dollar go????

[XIR.croom]

SOLUTION


The facts in this riddle are clear: There is an initial $30 charge. It should have been $25, so $5 must be returned and accounted for. $3 is given to the 3 friends, $2 is kept by the bellhop - there you have the $5. The trick to this riddle is that the addition and subtraction are done at the wrong times to misdirect your thinking - and quite successfully for most. Each of the 3 friends did indeed pay $9, not $10, and as far as the friends are concerned, they paid $27 for the night. But we know that the clerk will tell us that they were charged only $25 and when you add the $3 returned with the $2 kept by the bellhop, you come up with $30.

From Ward, another way to look at this one: My answer:

The following night two friends check into the same motel. Once again the clerk charges them $30, or $15 per person. After the clerk remembers the total rate is only $25 he sends the bellhop upstairs with five $1 bills to pay the two friends back. The bellhop knows he got away with larceny once so he tries it again. But this time he pockets $3 and returns $2 to the hotel guests ($1 per guest). So each of the two guests got $1 back from their original $15. Therefore each paid $14 which is a total payment of $28 for the room. Now the bellhop has $3, the guests paid $28, for a total of $31....THERE'S THE MISSING DOLLAR!!!!

[XIR.Xanton]

Hehe... k.... here's a short one:

The man who invented it doesn't want it.
The man who bought it doesn't need it.
The man who needs it doesn't know it.

What is it?

[XIR.croom]

hard riddle..

...hope I have the solution: a coffin ???!!!

[XIR.croom]

When I am filled,
I can point the way;
When I am empty,
Nothing moves me.
I have two skins,
One without and one within.
What am I?

[NJB]

[NJB]

You have twelve marbles. Eleven of the marbles are of equal weight, but one is heavier or lighter. You have a balancing scale you can use to find this marble and figure out if it weighs more or less than the others. What is the minimum number of weighings required to do this?

Heh heh

[XIR.croom]

[XIR.croom]

[XIR.Xanton]

A new one:

As a whole, I am both safe and secure.
Behead me, and I become a place of meeting.
Behead me again, and I am the partner of ready.
Restore me, and I become the domain of beasts.
...what am I?

[XIR.croom]