Three friends went to a restaurant.
The bill was $75
Each one contributed $25
The waiter took the bill to the cashier. The cashier was happy & decided to give them a discount of $5 and asked the waiter to return them.
Now the waiter was confused. How to distribute $5 among 3 persons?
He kept $2 in his pocket and gave one dollar to each one of the 3 persons.
So initially each one had contributed $25. Now they have been given $1 back, their contribution reduces to $24.
They all contributed $24.
That is $24×3= $72 and the $2 is in the waiters pocket.
The total becomes $74. But they had paid $75.
Where did the $1 go??
Tricky!! 
Leave your response as comment
October 16th, 2008 at 1:53 am
The dinner costed only $70, but they paid $72. Those $2 are in the pockets of the waiter.
To explain in another way: the three man have $1, the cashier $70 and the waiter $2. = $75
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:19 am
Interesting question…Initially they were to pay $75, but then the bill was reduced to $70. $70 divided by three is $23.33 paid by each. The waiter give each of the three back $1, so 23.33 plus 1.00 = $24.33. $24.33 x 3 = $73 (72.99 rounded up). $73.00 plus the $2.00 in the waiters pocket gets you back to the original $75.00
November 4th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
This got me for a while, and I wasn’t satisfied with what the other people explained.
This is the way it works. Each paid 25 and got 1 back, so they each paid 24, but this is total for the bill and tip. The problem portrays it in a way where you’re adding the tip on top of what they paid so it tricks you into thinking a dollar paid is missing when it’s really counting the tip money twice and the total really is supposed to 72.
The house got 70 plus 2 tip, that’s 72. The 3 people each paid 24, that’s 72. The equation is balanced.
November 11th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
The question as stated is intentionally misleading:
That is $24×3= $72 and the $2 is in the waiters pocket.
The total becomes $74. But they had paid $75.
Had this been stated honestly it would have said:
That is $24×3=$72. Subtract the $2 in the waiters pocket,
and total becomes $70, which was the bill after the $5 discount.
-smj
November 21st, 2008 at 1:30 pm
i dont get it ??
(
November 22nd, 2008 at 6:35 pm
#2 Jim’s answer is the crrect one
January 15th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
$75-$5=$70. $70+$2(waiter)=$72+$3(customers)=$75
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:37 pm
First think of this, $75-5= 70 w/ the $5 discount, then each paid $23.33, add a dollar to what the waiter gave them, they should then get $24.33. If you multiply that by 3 you’ll get $72.99 plus the $2 that the waiter kept which is $74.99 which of course rounds to pretty much $75.00….TADAAAA!!! [:-P
February 14th, 2009 at 10:19 am
screw it.
a five dollar discount…seriously?
I can’t even buy pop with a dollar
I’d give it back to the waiter.
Therefore he has 3 dollars in his pocket.
-.-
also…the waiter just stole from me…he pocketed my money…fgt