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

If we add four times the age of John four years from now to five times his age five years from now we get ten times his current age.

How old will John be two years from now?

Asked by Neha on 19 Jan 2025


I cry without having a voice.
I fly without having wings.
I bite without having teeth.
I whisper without a mouth.

Who am I?

Asked by Neha on 17 Nov 2025

Spot 5 differences in two Christmas tree below:

Christmas Tree

Asked by Neha on 06 Jul 2021


John left on a horse on Thursday , was gone for two days, and came back on Thursday after completing his work. How did that happen?

Asked by Neha on 23 Feb 2021

In a particular village, only two barbershops exist.

The first shop has a handsome barber with a neat haircut who is handsomely dressed in clean clothes and is extremely humble with his body language. The place is clean and looks hygienic.

In the second shop, you can find a barber with shabby clothing. His hairs are weirdly cut and his clothes still have the stains from last night's dinner. The place is not clean as well and reeks a bit.

You visit the village for the first time and decide to get your haircut. Which barbershop will you like to go for that and why?

Asked by Neha on 25 Apr 2026

He digs out tiny caves and stores gold and silver in them. He also built bridges of silver and made crowns of gold. They are the smallest you could imagine. Sooner or later everybody needs his help, yet many people are afraid to let him help them. Who is he?

Asked by Neha on 23 Dec 2025


Rose, Lily and Jasmine decided to buy flowers for their moms on Mother's Day. One of them bought lilies, the other roses, and the third one jasmines.
'It's funny!' said the girl with roses, 'we bought roses, jasmines and lilies, but none of us bought the flowers matching her name'.
'You're right!', said Lily.
What kind of flowers did each of the girls buy?

Asked by Neha on 07 Apr 2025

If nine thousand, nine hundred nine dollars is written as $9,909,
how should twelve thousand, twelve hundred twelve dollars be written?

Asked by Neha on 13 Sep 2024

What animal walks on four legs in the morning, two legs during the day, and three legs in the evening?

Oedipus, the king of Thebes, figured out the answer to the riddle:

Asked by Neha on 13 Sep 2025


There are hundred red gems and hundred blue gems. The blue gems are priceless while the red gems equal wastage. You have two sacks one labeled Heads and the other Tails. You have to distribute the gems as you want in the two sacks. Then a coin will be flipped and you will be asked to pick up a gem randomly from the corresponding sacks.

How will you distribute the gems between the sacks so that the odds of picking a Blue gem are maximum?

Asked by Neha on 29 May 2023

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.