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

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


You want to boil a two-minute egg. If you only have a three-minute timer (hourglass), a four-minute timer and a five-minute timer, how can you boil the egg for only two minutes?

Asked by Neha on 17 May 2021

What is the centre of gravity?

Asked by Neha on 10 Nov 2023


How can you tell a raw egg from a hard-boiled egg?

Asked by Neha on 09 Jan 2025

I can be cracked, made, told, and played. What am I?

Asked by Neha on 16 Aug 2025

If I put in one canary per cage, I have one bird too many. If I put in two canaries per cage, I have one cage too many. How many cages and canaries do I have?

Asked by Neha on 05 Oct 2023


what does the below math rebus puzzle mean?

Find the Rebus Meaning

Asked by Neha on 13 Nov 2023

A man looks at a painting in a museum and says, “Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man’s father is my father’s son.” Who is in the painting?

Asked by Neha on 12 Mar 2025

A murder has been committed in a house. You are a detective and have to find out the murderer.

You investigate by asking three questions to each of the six suspects. Out of those six suspects, four are liars. It is not necessary that they speak everything a lie. But in their answers, there must be at least one lie. One of the six is the murderer.

There are eight rooms in the house in which the murder has been committed: Kitchen, Living Room, Bathroom, Garage, Basement, 3 Bedrooms.

At the time of the murder, only the murderer was present in the killing room. Any number of people can be present in any of the other rooms at the same time.

Can you identify the murderer and the four liars? Also, can you find out who was in which room?

The responses of all the suspects are mentioned below.

Joseph:
Peter was in the 2nd bedroom.
So was I.
David was in the bathroom.

Mandy:
I agree with Joseph that David was in the bathroom and Peter was in the 2nd bedroom.
But I think that Joseph was in the living room, OH MY GOD!

Peter:
Mandy was in the kitchen with Christopher.
But I was in the bathroom.

David:
I still say Peter was in the 2nd bedroom and Jennifer was in the bathroom.
Joseph was in the 1st bedroom.

Jennifer:
Peter was in the bathroom with Christopher.
And Mandy was in the kitchen.

Christopher:
David was in the kitchen.
And I was in the 2nd bedroom with Peter.

PS: The corpse was found in the Living Room.

Asked by Neha on 22 May 2023


In the Thar desert, 3 men found a big 24L Jar is full of water. Since there is a shortage of water so they decided to distribute the water among themselves such that they all have equal amounts of it. But they only have a 13L, a 5L and an 11-litre Jar.

How do they do it?

Asked by Neha on 11 Jun 2024

Hot Articles

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.