Category: E05: Missing Dollar

There is no missing dollar. The bill cost $25, the waiter kept $2 and each lady got back $3 back.  While the waiter received $30, he realized he could not equally give each lady $5 in equal change, so he gave each $1 and kept $2.

In solving the missing dollar paradox, my brain began in a scramble. I did not even realize the dollar was missing until it was pointed out to me. My brain scrambled around that thought for a moment. Then I realized, the answer was as clear as my first thought. Without it being mentioned, the dollar was not missing. By working backwards you can see the dollars were distributed correctly. The way the riddle states it cause the reader to confuse his or her self.

The entire bill costed $27 including the tip, the three dollars is what they waiter gave back to the girls so the missing dollar was just included in the bill rather then missing. so when you do the math 27 + 3= 30 so really there was no missing dollar it was just included in the tip.

The dollar is not missing at all. The 27 dollars that the ladies paid includes the two dollars the waiter has in his pocket, so it’s not necessary to add it on afterwords. That plus the three dollars the ladies received equals 30 dollars.

To solve the missing dollar paradox, I worked backwards to discover that there was never a missing dollar. The way that the situation is worded makes it seem that each woman paid nine dollars, the waiter took two, and then there would be one missing dollar. However, the $27 that the women paid, $9 each, included the tip to the waiter. Adding the 27$ with the two dollars the waiter took would be counting the tip twice. Instead, the $27 includes the tip and the missing three dollars are the three dollars that the women received back from the waiter.

The trick falls in the wording of the problem.

“Now, each of the ladies paid $9. Three times 9 is $27. The waiter has $2 in his pocket. Two plus 27 is $29. The ladies originally handed over $30.”

This phrasing encourages the reader to count the $2 twice.

The $27 includes the money the waiter took and the last $3 was handed back to the ladies. The bill was $25, the waiter took $2 and $3 was handed back to the ladies so there was never a dollar missing. It was simply badly phrased information.