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Haggling for Rupees
By Arun Iyer on Sunday, January 13, 2002 - 06:14 pm:

This question was given to me by my friend...

Three people come to a motel to stay for a night...the owner charges Rs10/- each....these 3 agree to it.....

In the morning all these three were ready to leave,the owner sent his servant to collect the rent money....all the three people gave Rs10/- each but asked the servant to ask the owner a bit discount.....

The servant put forward the wish of the guests before his owner....the owner gives his servant Rs5/- and tells him to give it to the guests...

the servant falls in a dilemma as for how to divide Rs5/-among three.....so he takes Rs2/- for himself and gives the guests remaining Rs3/-...from which each of the guests recieves Rs1/-

Now the servant does a bit of calculation....
each of the guest got Rs1/- back so it is asif each of them has paid Rs9/- so the total amounts to Rs27/-....the servant has taken Rs2/- so the total is Rs29/-??????

How could it be it has to be 30????
where has that Rs1/- gone????
Any help??
love arun
P.S->i couldn't make any guess thus far on this one...

By Anthony Cardell Tony on Sunday, January 13, 2002 - 07:18 pm:

I have heard of this one in a different format before..It is something with double counting..

I think it may be that they actually paid 25 dollars for the rooms (5 dollar discount), then got back 3 dollars , while the servant got 2 dollars, which adds up to 30. If you subtract the money they get back,what you have left is the money they paid the owner + the money they paid the servant. You have already counted the money you payed the servant, so there is no reason to count it again. 27, the total money minus the amount they get back , makes sense as the amount they got rid of. Does this explanation work?

By Brad Rodgers on Sunday, January 13, 2002 - 07:37 pm:

Yeah, we all agree that they pay Rs27/- in total, and that the owner gets Rs25/-. So it makes sense that the servant keeps Rs2/-. This is basically what Tony said though. By the way, what does Rs/- stand for?

Brad

By Philip Ellison on Sunday, January 13, 2002 - 08:24 pm:

Right.. total money paid to begin with: Rs30/-
Then 5 is deducted from this, so the total amount paid is Rs25/-
Now, the servant keeps Rs2/- of the REFUND... ie. the bill is reduced from Rs30/- to Rs27/-
This means that they HAVE all paid Rs9/- and so the total amount paid is Rs27/-... ie... 30-5+2
The confusion comes from assuming that the owner + servant combined still reveive Rs30/-, which they don't as Rs3/- has been refunded.
I know this is basically what Brad and Tony said, but I thought it might be useful to phrase it slightly differently (I've seen some people have real trouble getting their heads around this). I hope it makes sense now.

By Arun Iyer on Monday, January 14, 2002 - 06:08 pm:

Brad,
Rs stands for rupees (the Indian currency)....

THANKS EVERYONE FOR ALL THE ANSWERS......
love arun