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

Twice ten are six of us,

Six are but three of us,

Nine are but four of us;

What can we possibly be?

Would you know more of us?

Twelve are but six of us,

Five are but four, do you see?

What are we?

Asked by Neha on 26 Dec 2020


A time long back, there lived a king who ruled the great kingdom of Trojan House. As a part of the renovation of the kingdom to meet future security needs, he asked his chief architect to lay down a new play in a manner that all of his 10 castles are connected through five straight walls and each wall must connect four castles together. He also asked the architect that at least one of his castles should be protected with walls. The architect could not come up with any solution that served all of King's choices, but he suggested the best plan that you can see in the picture below. Can you find a better solution to serve the king's demand?

Castles in a line

Asked by Neha on 18 Sep 2023

A girl is twice as old as her brother and half as old as her father. In 50 years, her brother will be half as old as his father. How old is the daughter now?

Asked by Neha on 21 Jan 2023


What 4-letter word can be written forward, backward or upside down, and can still be read from left to right?

Asked by Neha on 14 May 2021

A pet show was happening in my locality. I went down along with my kids. In that show, I noticed that all except two of the entries were cats. All except two were dogs and all except two were Monkeys.

Can you find out how many of each animals were present in that pet show?

Asked by Neha on 04 Feb 2021

A car is crossing a 20 km-long bridge. The bridge can support at most 1500kg of weight over it. If somehow, the weight on the bridge becomes more than that, it will break.

Now, the weight of the car is exactly 1500kg. At the midway, a bird comes and sits on the roof of the car. This bird weighs exactly 200 grams.
Can you tell if the bridge breaks at this point or not?

Asked by Neha on 26 Sep 2024


You know three triplets: Frank John and Wayne (need to return your money). Frank always tells the truth while John and Wayne always lie. You meet one of them on the road and can ask him a three-word question.
Which question, will you ask?

Asked by Neha on 21 Mar 2023

Sally lives in a place where six months of the year is mild summer and the temperature drops significantly the other six months. She owns a lake where there is a small island. She wants to build a house on the island and needs to get materials there. She doesn’t have a boat, plane, or anything to transport them to the island. How does Sally solve this problem?

Asked by Neha on 09 Jun 2025

There is a box in which distinct numbered balls have been kept. You have to pick two balls randomly from the lot.

If someone is offering you a 2 to 1 odds that the numbers will be relatively prime, for example
If the balls you picked had the numbers 6 and 13, you lose $1.
If the balls you picked had the numbers 5 and 25, you win $2.

Will you accept that bet?

Asked by Neha on 11 Mar 2023


If,
9 * 8 * 7 = 65
8 * 7 * 6 = 50
7 * 6 * 5 = 37

Find
6 * 5 * 4 = ?

Asked by Neha on 05 Jul 2024

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Amazing Facts

No Solution

In 2007, a puzzle was released and $2 million prizes were offered for the first complete solution. The competition ended at noon on 31 December 2010, with no solution being found. Wiki