Find the "buck" over the weekend

While I was working as a temporary barista in Starbucks before I went to UK, someone told me this. It’s very interesting…

3 friends went to a hotel and rented a room. At the check-in counter, the receptionist said the room rate was $30 for a night. The 3 friends agreed and they each paid $10 for the room.

3 friends X $10 each = $30 for the room

After leaving the counter, the receptionist realised she made a mistake, and that the room rate was only $25 for that night. Therefore, she asked the bellboy to return the $5 which has been over-paid to the 3 friends.

$30 originally paid – $25 actual rate = $5 refund

As the bellboy walked to the room to return the $5, greed sets upon him and he decided to ‘steal’ $2 from the refund of $5 and thus, only $3 were refunded to the 3 friends.

$5 total refund – $2 ‘taken’ by bellboy = $3 refunded to the 3 friends

Are you able to follow? If you can't, scroll up and read again. If you still can't, take out your SPM cert and whichever grade you get for Mathematics, over-write your grade with a capital “F”… stands for F*cked-up.

Back to the story…Those 3 friends happily accepted the $3 and they divided the $3 among themselves. Naturally, each of them got $1 each. Since each of them originally paid $10 for the room, their individual cost is now $9.

$10 paid per person – $1 refunded per person = $9 paid per person

Now that the 3 friends have been refunded $1 each, they each only paid $9 for the room (as shown above). This would mean, the total amount paid by them is $27.

3 friends X $9 each = $27 paid

Since the 3 friends now effectively only paid $27 in total, and the bellboy has ‘stolen’ $2, this would only amount to a total of $29.

$27 paid + $2 ‘stolen’ by bellboy = $29

Now… Ladies and genitalman… the room rate was originally $30 and those 3 friends originally paid $30 (i.e. $10 each). But…$27 paid + $2 ‘stolen’ by bellboy = only $29!

Where is the missing $1?

This is not a trick question.