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

The king of Octopuses has servants who have six, seven or eight legs. The distinguishing characteristics of the servants is that the one with seven legs always lie but the one with either six or eight legs speak the truth always.

One day, four servants meet and converse:

The black one says, 'We have 28 legs altogether.'

The green one says, 'We have 27 legs altogether.'

The yellow one says, 'We have 26 legs altogether.'

The red one says, 'We have 25 legs altogether.'


Can you identify the colour of the servant who is speaking the truth?

Servants with multiple legs

Asked by Neha on 09 Apr 2021


Replace the question mark with the correct number, given the pair of numbers exhibits a similar relationship?

? : 3839 :: 11 : 1209

Asked by Neha on 03 Jun 2023

I came first on earth but second on the heaven.
I also came twice in a week but found just once in a year.
I stay away from months but you can find me in February.

What am I?

Asked by Neha on 01 Jan 2025


The LCD device should be able to tell the right time in the format HH:MM: SS in a 12-hour format. You can refer to the picture to get an idea. The device is a simple "level indicator" which has to be converted into a watch. How will you program it to work?

Asked by Neha on 24 Jun 2026

This was asked in an interview with Coa-Cola.

The interviewer has given me 100 marbles(50 white and 50 black) and two empty boxes.
He then told me that he will leave the room and i need to place all the marbles in two boxes.

And When he come back, he will draw a marble from any of the two box and if the marble is white I will be hired.

Also
* No box can be empty.
* All 100 marbles must be placed in one of the two boxes.

So what should I have done?

Asked by Neha on 29 Nov 2024

I have teeth but i don't bite. Who Am I ?

Teeth for showpiece

Asked by Neha on 29 Mar 2021


A man embarked on a questionnaire game. He kept asking the same question to whomever he found. The answer each time was different.

Can you guess what the question was?

Asked by Neha on 22 Apr 2023

There are two insects on a tile. Insect X is sitting on one side of the tile (point A) and Insect Y is sitting opposite on the other side of the tile (point B). Now both of them decide to change their position and thus X starts crawling to point B and Y starts crawling to point A. When they meet and pass each other in between, X takes 20 seconds to reach B and Y takes just 5 seconds to reach A.

Can you calculate the total time each of the insects took to change their positions?

Asked by Neha on 25 Feb 2026

John was working on a Chemical Mixture whose weight comprise 90% liquid and 10% solid. The total weight of the mixture is 20 pounds. After a while, John noticed that some of the liquid evaporated and now the liquid comprises just 50% of the weight.

What is the weight of the chemical mixture now?

Asked by Neha on 12 Feb 2024


Three cars are driving on a track that forms a perfect circle and is wide enough that multiple cars can pass anytime. The car that is leading in the race right now is driving at 55 MPH and the car that is trailing at the last is going at 45 MPH. The car that is in the middle is somewhere between these two speeds.
Right now, you can assume that there is a distance of x miles between the leading car and the middle car and x miles between the middle car and the last car and also, x is not equal to 0 or 1.
The cars maintain their speed till the leading car catches up with the last car and then every car stops. In this scenario, do you think of any point when the distance between any two pairs will again be x miles i.e. the pairs will be x distance apart at the same time ?

Asked by Neha on 08 May 2021

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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.