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

On her drawing table, Sayna lit 12 coloured candles. A few seconds later she blew two candles off.

How many candles Sayna have at the end?

Light the Candles

Asked by Neha on 07 Mar 2021


The picture shows the dice results in each couple of throws. If they are actually following a pattern, can you find out the missing one?

Next Dice Movement

Asked by Neha on 02 Dec 2023

A large container is kept in open under the rain. Every passing hour, the water collected inside the container becomes double what it was.

In ten hours, the container is filled completely. Can you calculate how long would it have taken to be filled in half?

Asked by Neha on 05 Apr 2024


Christina is older than Kareena and Karishma. Katrina is older than Karishma and younger than Kareena. If Kareena has a brother named John, who is older than Christina, who's the youngest?

Asked by Neha on 10 Jul 2024

There are three Athletes (John, Tarun and Harish) and their individual Coaches (Jacob, Meenaxi and Priyanka) standing on the shore.
No Coach trusts their Athlete to be near any other Coach unless they are also with them.
There is a boat that can hold a maximum of two persons.
How can the six people get across the river?

Asked by Neha on 05 Feb 2025

Only one color, but not one size,
Stuck at the bottom, yet easily flies.
Present in sun, but not in rain,
Doing no harm, and feeling no pain.
What is it?

Asked by Neha on 14 May 2021


In a rainy season, one day 3 huge ladies walked under a normal-sized umbrella.
The umbrella is not huge enough to accommodate all 3 ladies yet not a single lady got wet. Why?

Asked by Neha on 19 May 2024

Can you find out the missing number?

? 4 5 3 5

9 5 7 10 3

Asked by Neha on 03 Mar 2024

In the figure, you can see nine stars. What you have to do is connect all of them by using just four line and without lifting your hand i.e. in a continuous flow.

Connect the Stars

Asked by Neha on 17 May 2021


Its something that each of us devours,
Not just us but birds, beats, trees, and flowers,
Frets iron and nibbles steel,
Toil hard stones to meal,
Exterminates king, collapse town,
And blows the mountains down.

Asked by Neha on 20 Mar 2023

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Crossword

The day before the 1996 U.S. presidential election, the NYT Crossword contained the clue “Lead story in tomorrow’s newspaper,” the puzzle was built so that both electoral outcomes were correct answers, requiring 7 other clues to have dual responses.