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

What Adam and Eve do not have but the rest of the people have?

Asked by Neha on 15 Mar 2023


I am a type of room you cannot enter or leave. Raised from the ground below, I could be poisonous or a delicious treat. What am I?

Asked by Neha on 12 Apr 2022

A dead body is found outside a multi-story multinational company. The case is reported and a homicide detective is called on the crime scene.

He looks at the body and then towards the building. From the position of the body, it is evident that the victim committed suicide. He goes to the first floor of the building and then walks in the direction of the dead body, opens the window and toss a coin in the air.

He goes to second floor and again repeats the process. He keeps doing this till he is done on all the floors. Then he returns back to the floor and tells his team that it is a murder.

How in heaven did he deduce that?

Asked by Neha on 10 Sep 2021


If Japan and Panama decided to merge into a single country, probably people will name it Japanama.

Can you think of two more such country's unions that could produce similar names like Japanama by overlapping their three letters?

Asked by Neha on 08 Sep 2024

You need to arrange three 7 and mathematical symbols to form number 1?

Asked by Neha on 02 Jul 2021

Which word does the below Plexor means ?

Hard Word Plexor

Asked by Neha on 11 May 2021


A monk has a very specific ritual for climbing up the steps to the temple. First, he climbs up to the middle step and meditates for 1 minute. Then he climbs up 8 steps and faces east until he hears a bird singing. Then he walks down 12 steps and picks up a pebble. He takes one step up and tosses the pebble over his left shoulder. Now, he walks up the remaining steps three at a time which only takes him 9 paces. How many steps are there?

Asked by Neha on 16 Apr 2026

A pond had 60 fish, out of which, all but 20 died.
How many fishes are now present in that pond?

Asked by Neha on 14 Jul 2024

What you cannot hold but it is yours?

Asked by Neha on 28 Dec 2024


You enter your friend's room. He is not in his room. Although you see that on the bed there are two dogs, five cats, two giraffes and three pigs. Also, a couple of chickens and ducks are flying in the room.

Calculate the number of legs standing on the floor.

Asked by Neha on 21 Nov 2025

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence has crushed all human records in the puzzle game “2048,” achieving a high score of 839,732 and beating the game in only 973 moves without using any undo.