Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Where's the Dollar?

"Okay kid. Where’s the other dollar?" "Honest sir, he only gave me five. I swear!" "Kid, do you think I’m stupid? Do you think I was born yesterday? Does it look like I just fell off the turnip truck? (I’m not even sure what that means.)" "Sir, with all due respect, the manager gave me five, I gave you three and I kept only two." "Listen kid, I know how to count. If you don’t have it, where is it?" "Sir, with all due respect, I don’t know where it went. I’m not even sure it’s missing!" Is he lying? I think you need to know the whole story to decide. There were three of us traveling together. We needed a place to stay overnight. We spotted a sign on the door to an old bed and breakfast. "Stay Here Tonight … $10.00", it said. We went in and asked the gentleman behind the desk for three rooms. "I’m sorry guys, I only have one room available. Would you like to share the one room?" After a brief discussion amongst ourselves we agreed to share the room. The gentleman charged us $10.00 each and collected our $30.00. There was a young kid mulling about whom he instructed to show us to our room. About an hour later the manager called for the kid. "Kid, I feel bad I charged those guys $30.00 for sharing a room." He handed the kid five ones and told him to return it to us. The kid, on his way to deliver the money thought it would be much easier to give us just three dollars back (because after all, there were three of us) and then keep two for himself. We happily accepted the three ones, which we split between us and when we attempted to tip the kid he wouldn’t accept it, admitting to keeping two for himself. "Hold on just one second there, kid!" I said. Getting a dollar back each means we paid $27 for the room … Originally we gave him $10 each equaling $30. Now, getting a dollar back each we only paid $9 each. So … 3 times $9 is $27 … the kid kept $2 … making it $29 … Where did the other dollar go?