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

You walk into an old horror house. It has no power or plumbing. Once inside, you see three doors. Each door has a number on it. Behind each door is a way for you to die. Behind door number one, you die by getting eaten by a lion. Behind door number two, you die by getting murdered. Behind door number three, you die by an electric chair. You can’t turn back, so you have to go through a door. Which door do you go through?

Asked by Neha on 10 Jun 2025


A wealthy man lives alone in a small cottage. Being partially handicapped he had everything delivered to his cottage. The mailman was delivering a letter one Thursday when he noticed that the front door was ajar. Through the opening he could see the man's body lying in a pool of dried blood. When a police officer arrived he surveyed the scene. On the porch were two bottles of warm milk, Monday's newspaper, a catalog, flyers, and unopened mail. The police officer suspects it was foul play. Who does he suspect and why?

Murder Mystery Puzzle

Asked by Neha on 07 Apr 2021

Replace the question mark with the number below given a simple math problem.

Fill the Question Mark

Asked by Neha on 03 Dec 2024


Trying to tease Birbal, Akbar gave him one gold coin and ask him to buy
* something for him to eat
* something for him to drink.
* something to feed the cows
* something to plant in the garden
and most important you need to buy only one thing.

What must Birbal buy to silence Akbar?

Asked by Neha on 10 May 2021

What word does this rebus represent?

meta meta
meta meta

Asked by Neha on 11 May 2021

A large water tank has two inlet pipes (a large one and a small one) and one outlet pipe. It takes 3 hours to fill the tank with the large inlet pipe. On the other hand, it takes 6 hours to fill the tank with the small inlet pipe. The outlet pipe allows the full tank to be emptied in 9 hours.

What fraction of the tank (initially empty) will be filled in 0.64 hours if all three pipes are in operation? Give your answer to two decimal places (e.g., 0.25, 0.5, or 0.75).

Asked by Neha on 08 Jan 2026


Six glasses are in a row. The first three are filled with milk and the last three are empty. By moving only one glass, can you arrange them so that the full and the empty glasses alternate?

Asked by Neha on 23 Sep 2023

What you cannot hold but it is yours?

Asked by Neha on 28 Dec 2024

Look at this sequence from top to bottom. What is the next number in the sequence?
1
11
21
1211
111221
312211

Asked by Neha on 24 Sep 2021


What seven-letter word has hundreds of letters in it?

Asked by Neha on 01 May 2022

Hot Articles

Amazing Facts

Challenging

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