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The answer is: There is no other dollar.
The math isn?t wrong here, the instructions are wrong. Think of the problem this way:
At the end of the day, each man has put in $9 towards the cost of the room: 3 x $9 = $27.
The bellboy has kept $2 from what the men spent for himself: $27 - $2 = $25.
The motel has collected $25.
Or to take it from the other direction:
The motel has $30 and gives $5 of that to the bellboy to return to the men: $30 - $5 = $25.
The bellboy, not knowing how to split $5 equally decides to keep $2 for himself: $5 - $2 = $3.
The men each end up with $1 each. Total it up: 3 x $1 + $2 + $25 = $30.
About the best the bellhop could have done would be to give two men $1.67 and the last $1.66, which would be about as close to evenly dividing $5 he could have come to. The mistake in the instructions is when the riddle asks you to "add the $2 the bellboy kept" to the total the men spent. The bellboy took that money from the total so you would subtract it, not add it. Now, how many of you are slapping your foreheads right about now?
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