This Riddle Is Giving Me An Anuresym

[Thief of Always]

I'm not sure if I spelled that right, but it's a trivial matter to me at the moment.

Last night, a friend told me this riddle his boss at work told him. From what I'm told, this riddle has an actual answer (in other words, it's not one of those trick riddles). I've been trying to figure it out, and I intend to, but I was wanting to throw this at you guys to see if you can get it solved.

Okay, here's the riddle. I'm going to try and tell it in the same way it was told to me.

Three men look for a place to stay. They find a hotel, and the manager there is willing to let them all have one room for $10 each. The three men give him $10 each for an altogether $30.

After a while, the manager started to feel guilty so he called the bell boy. He gives the bell boy $5 and tells him to go give it back to the three men. The bell boy, not having any change, decides to set aside $2 of the $5 and give the three men a $1 each.

From this, it reduces the cost of the room from $10 each to $9 each. From that conclusion, they paid $27 altogether (because we all know 9 x 3 = 27). But with the $2 that the bell boy kept, that only makes a $29 total.

What happened to the extra dollar?

I know I'm overlooking some little detail. Argh.

 

[Creamsteak]

I don't get it. 30 -5 + 3 + 2 = 30. 29 is the sum of 30 -3 + 2. The amount of money that the occupants paid for the room plus the two dollars the bellboy has is 29. There is no extra dollar.

 

[Robbert Raets]

I've seen this riddle (and it's explanation) before. There is no 'extra dollar', the $27 they paid includes the $2 the bellboy kept for himself.

 

[FireLance]

To elaborate: the sum of the $27 paid by the three men and the $2 kept by the bellboy is meaningless.

You could look at it in this manner: Of the original $30 paid by the three men, $25 is with the manager, $2 with the bellboy and $3 returned to the three men.

Alternatively, you could look at it as follows: The three men have paid $27, of which $25 is with the manager, and $2 with the bellboy.

So adding the amount the men paid to the amount kept by the bellboy is meaningless because the amount the men paid includes the amount kept by the bellboy.

 

[Flyspeck23]

Here's a "visual" solution:

It start's off as:
Manager: $30
Bell boy: $0
Man 1: -$10
Man 2: -$10
Man 3: -$10
SUM: 0

Then the bell boy gets the $5 from the manager:
Manager: $25
Bell boy: $5
Man 1: -$10
Man 2: -$10
Man 3: -$10
SUM: 0

Now the bell boy gives every man $1:
Manager: $25
Bell boy: $2
Man 1: -$9
Man 2: -$9
Man 3: -$9
SUM: 0

See, no missing dollar

 

[Hand of Evil]

The one I hate is...There are three words in the english language that end in "gry", hungry and angry are two, what is the third?

 

[Flyspeck23]

The one I hate is...There are three words in the english language that end in "gry", hungry and angry are two, what is the third?

http://www.word-detective.com/gry.html

http://www.quinion.com/words/articles/gry.htm

http://rec-puzzles.org/sol.pl/language/english/spelling/gry

 

[Felix]

Or, from an Accounting Perspective:

Hotel Man1 Man2 Man3 Bellboy
00:30 10:00 10:00 10:00 00:00
05:00 00:01 00:01 00:01 00:02
00:25 09:00 09:00 09:00 00:02


The credits and debits balance out... $27 paid by the three men, $27 gained by the hotel and the bellboy.

...boy, college education at work!

 

[DaveStebbins]

Right, the $2 the bellboy kept isn't the difference between the $27 final payment and the $30 initial payment; it's the difference between the $27 final payment and the $25 that the manager has in the end.

 

[Dogbrain]

The one I hate is...There are three words in the english language that end in "gry", hungry and angry are two, what is the third?

No such word at all. There USED to be two words spelled "gry", but they are both centuries obsolete. The older "gry" meant "To rage, roar." and has not been used in 450 years or so. The newer "gry" was a small fraction of an inch in an idiosyncratic measurement system proposed by John Locke but never adopted by anyone.

Therefore, the correct answer to the riddle is: "Shut your gob, you festering tit! There are only two such words in English." There USED to be two other such words, but they are both now utterly obsolete, having passed out of the English language.