Quote Originally Posted by MrSandman View Post
I don't get why you're adding the two gold pieces that the innkeeper is keeping to the final amount. The 27 gp that the adventurers paid already include those 2 gp. 25 gp for the room + 2 gp for the trouble = 27 gp, which divided by 3 is the 9 gp that each paid. There's no missing coin because the amount now has changed to 27, not to 29.
In fact, if the total amount was now 29, what we should figure out is where those two extra coins came from.
Heh - it was a riddle the teacher told us.
So the way he had phrased it...
Three people go to an inn and pay 10 dollars (gold) each, for a total of 30.
They go back to their room.
Inn Keep gives 5 gold to the bellhop to return.
Bellhop pockets 2 because you can't split 5 evenly between 3.
So each who paid 10 now officially paid 9.
So if they all paid 9 originally, and there was 3 of them - that makes 27 + 2 the bellhop kept is 29.
So when it was originally phrased that way, it sounded like there was a missing dollar (gold coin).

But obviously, if you look at it the other way - the inn keep has 25, he gave 5 to the bellhop, he kept 2 and gave 3 back.
That's 25 + 3 + 2 which equals 30.

It was a matter of how he stated the riddle to make it look like there is a missing dollar/coin.

It's MUCH easier to figure out when you read it.

But tell it to someone (so they don't have the numbers in front of them), they will focus on how you're telling it, and believe there's some trick to a missing dollar (gold coin).