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 recognises 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?




Similar Riddles

15 caves are arranged in a circle at the temple of doom. One of these caves has the treasure of gems and wealth. Each day the treasure keepers can move the treasure to an adjacent cave or can keep it in the same cave. Every day two treasure seekers visit the place and have enough time to enter any two caves of their choice.

How do the treasure seekers ensure that they find the treasure in the minimum number of possible days?

15 Cave Riddle

Asked by Neha on 29 Jul 2024


What common phrase is represented by the below lines

Easy going:
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Tough, 'I'm staying.'

Medium going:
Weak, 'I'm going.'
Tough, 'I'm staying.'

Tough going:
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Tough, 'Let's get going.'

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You are playing as white and given four rooks to checkmate the black king in four moves with the following rules 1. You can place one rook every move and ensure the black king should be in check position.2. After four moves the black king should be in the checkmate position.

King Rooks Riddle

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A woman who works in a sweet shop has a measurement of 32-26-36, is 5"4" tall, and wears size "6" shoes. What do you think she weighs?

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Three people check into a hotel. They pay $60 for the rent of the room. After they check-in, the manager realize that the rent for the room is $55. So, he gives $5 to the bellboy and asks him to give it to them. The bellboy thinks that it will be difficult for the three people to share $5 among them and seeking the personal benefit, he pockets $2 and gives the remaining $3 to them.

Now, each person paid $20 and got back $1. In this manner, each of them paid just $19 which totals to the amount of $57. The bellboy has $2 with him and adding them, we get $59. So where is the remaining $1?

Asked by Neha on 02 Aug 2023

In the Thar desert, 3 men found a big 24L Jar is full of water. Since there is a shortage of water so they decided to distribute the water among themselves such that they all have equal amounts of it. But they only have a 13L, a 5L and an 11-litre Jar.

How do they do it?

Asked by Neha on 11 Jun 2024


A frog is at the bottom of a 30-meter well. Each day he summons enough energy for one 3-meter leap up the well. Exhausted, he then hangs there for the rest of the day. At night, while he is asleep, he slips 2 meters backwards. How many days does it take him to escape from the well?

Asked by Neha on 25 Nov 2024

One day, I thought of ways that can be used for creating a palindrome. So I decided that I will turn into a larger number by adding the reversed digits to the original number and keep doing it till I finally obtained a palindrome.

I am not sure if this process will always result in a palindrome eventually but I was able to produce a four-digit palindrome. Can you guess my starting number?

Asked by Neha on 17 Apr 2024

You are a prisoner sentenced to death. The Emperor offers you a chance to live by playing a simple game. He gives you 50 black marbles, 50 white marbles, and 2 empty bowls. He then says, 'Divide these 100 marbles into these 2 bowls. You can divide them any way you like as long as you use all the marbles. Then I will blindfold you and mix the bowls around. You then can choose one bowl and remove ONE marble. If the marble is WHITE you will live, but if the marble is BLACK... you will die.'

How do you divide the marbles up so that you have the greatest probability of choosing a WHITE marble?

Asked by Neha on 14 Jun 2023


A clock loses 10 minutes each hour. If the clock is set correctly at noon, what time is it when it reads 3 PM?

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There is a cryptic organization called Cicada 3301 that posts challenging puzzles online, possibly to recruit codebreakers and linguists.