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

Below, you can see three complete equations and one incomplete. Based on the three complete ones, can you complete the incomplete one?

5 $ 4 $ 3 $ 9 = 4215
6 $ 9 $ 2 $ 6 = 3816
4 $ 7 $ 3 $ 3 = 1122
7 $ 2 $ 7 $ 4 = ____

Asked by Neha on 10 Dec 2025


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?

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Your last good ping-pong ball fell into a narrow metal pipe embedded one foot deep in concrete.
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Detective Rockford was jogging near the beach at 4:30 am.
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Next instance he heard the sound of gunfire. Rockford rushes to the shack where he finds women lying dead and a gun in close proximity of three "Doctore Lawyer and a Teacher".

Rockford immediately knew that the Lawyer has committed the crime. How?

Asked by Neha on 05 Apr 2023

Bopanna was working on a murder case when he received a message about the location of the murder weapon.
The message was encrypted as below.

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Tell me the location of the murder weapon.

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Given that

(78)^9 = 6
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Can you find out

(99)^2 =?

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