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

A hen, a dog, and a cat are stolen. Three suspects are arrested named Robin, Steve, and Tim. The police are sure that all of them stole one of the animals but they don't know who stole which animal.

Sherlock Holmes is appointed to identify and is provided with the following statements from the investigation.

Robin - Tim stole the hen
Steve - Tim stole the dog
Tim - Both Robin and Steve are lying. I neither stole a hen nor a dog.

Sherlock is somehow able to deduce that the man who stole the cat is telling a lie and the man who stole the hen is telling truth.

Can you help him find out who stole which animal?

Asked by Neha on 22 Jun 2024


Alpha is Beta's sister.

Gamma is a Beta mother.

Delta is Gamma's father.

Tango is Delta's mother.

Then,

How is Alpha related to Delta?

Asked by Neha on 17 Jun 2024

You are confined in a room and given two metal rods. Out of these two rods, one is magnet and the other is the iron rod. They look starkly similar. You don't have any other metal object in the room.

How will you decide which one of those is magnet?

Asked by Neha on 25 Apr 2021


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

Asked by Neha on 15 Mar 2023

What does the below image rebus riddle means ?

Rebus Riddle

Asked by Neha on 04 Sep 2021

There are two words one resembles the "state of rest" and the other is related to "writing/reading material".

Can you name these two words which also sound similar?

Asked by Neha on 21 May 2024


What does this rebus puzzle means ?

Rebus Picture Problem

Asked by Neha on 18 Jul 2023

Two prisoners Jack and Jill are locked in a cell.
There is open window approx 40 feet above the ground of the cell.
They are never able to reach there.

Then they plan to escape by a tunnel and they start digging out.
After digging for more than 20 days, Jill comes with the different plan and they escaped.

what was the plan ?

Asked by Neha on 10 Aug 2021

In the addition below, all digits have been replaced by letters. Equal letters represent equal digits and different letters represent different digits.
ABCABA
BBDCAA
ABEABB
ABDBAA
------- +
AAFGBDH
What does the complete addition look like in digits?

Asked by Neha on 04 Jul 2023


Assume there are approximately 5,000,000,000 (5 billion) people on Earth. What would you estimate to be the result, if you multiply together the number of fingers on every person's left hand? (For the purposes of this exercise, thumbs count as fingers, for five fingers per hand.) If you cannot estimate the number then try to guess how long the number would be.

Asked by Neha on 24 Sep 2025

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Rubik’s Cube

The inventor of the Rubik’s Cube didn’t realize he’d built a puzzle until he scrambled it the first time and tried to restore it.