Riddle

[Integrator741]

Hi. I 'll go straight to the point cuz it's doing my head in!

I, my brother and sister bought a game from Bill for £30. Bill decided to give £5 back and asked Dick to give us the money. Dick gave us £1 each and kept £2 for himself. So we ended up paying £9 each for the game. Let's check the math. 9×3=£27; and Dick got £2 so £2+£27=£29. What happened to the £1??
Please help.

Thanks.

 

[Minder]

I heard that one about 50yrs ago, but it was a meal each.
Do the math indeed!
It's called logical sleight of hand!
M.

 

[dave9]

What's really going to bake your noodle later is that Bill got that game at my garage sale for $2.

 

[ChosunOne]

I heard that one about 50yrs ago, but it was a meal each.
Do the math indeed!
It's called logical sleight of hand!
M.

Same here, about 50 yrs ago, but it was three traveling salesmen sharing a motel room @ $10 ea. but the night manager had neglected to give them the 3-fer $5 discount.
The person who TOLD the riddle didn't know the answer and in fact--and this is true--honestly believed that the riddle had no solution, it was "just one of those things" that couldn't be answered. Seriously, I kid you not, he believed that.

I heard it years later in an unrelated group of acquaintances who believed the same thing. When I tried to point out the "locical slight-of-hand", they refused to believe it resolved the riddle.

I wish I were kidding. Sad to say, an awful lot of peeps do even simple math by rote but don't really understand it.

 

[(*steve*)]

There's an even older one that involves camels and impossible fractions...

In answer to the first one, it is simply that people are not happy with negative numbers when they add up the money in their hands

30 - 5 = (3 * 9) - 2