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

For an extra income, John decided to work at a Hotel for one hour daily. The manager offers him that they will pay him $11 after every 11 days.
However, John offered a different proposition to the manager. The offers stand as:
He will be paid just a penny on his first day.
Two pence will be paid on the second day,
Four pence will be paid on the third day.
And so on till the 11th day.

Should the Hotel manager accept his offer?

Asked by Neha on 30 Nov 2025


If your uncle’s sister is not your aunt, what relation is she to you?

Asked by Neha on 28 Jul 2025

A guard is positioned at the one side of the bridge saying ‘A’. His task is to shoot all those who try to leave from ‘A’ to the other side and say ‘B’. He also need to welcome the person who comes from another side ‘B’ to his side ‘A’. The guard comes out of his post every 1 hour and looks down the bridge for any people trying to leave. You are at side ‘A’ and wish to go to another side ‘B’. you also know that it would take 1:45 hr to cross the bridge. How will you cross the bridge?

Asked by Neha on 23 Apr 2024


In four steps you need to move the word 'cold' From 'warm' by replacing one alphabet at a time such that every word formed at each step is acceptable in English Dictionary.

Asked by Neha on 23 Aug 2024

In a concert, Christina is performing a dance show with her group.
At 10:00, she and her crew were dancing in an absolutely straight line. At that time Christina was standing in 4th position from both the front and back end of the row.

What was the size of her crew?

Asked by Neha on 11 Aug 2024

Christina is practising her dance steps along with her friends. In a particular sequence, all of them form a row. At that point, Niharika is standing in the 4th position from either end of the row.
Can you find out how many girls are practising together?

Asked by Neha on 10 Oct 2024


Replace the letters of words with a number so that the below equation holds true

BASE +
BALL
---------
GAMES
----------

Asked by Neha on 10 Oct 2023

How many triangles can you find in this given picture?

Count the Triangles

Asked by Neha on 27 Feb 2023

What does it mean?

What does it mean?

Asked by Neha on 03 Mar 2025


What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and gray when you throw it away?

Asked by Neha on 06 Jan 2021

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Challenging

There is a cryptic organization called Cicada 3301 that posts challenging puzzles online, possibly to recruit codebreakers and linguists.