Brother Gene Hawkins put forth this puzzle to begin a study at our Church Youth Camp one year. I thought you might enjoy coming up with the answer.
Quite a number of years ago there was a convention going on in a certain town, there were three salesmen hit town, and there was only one motel room left in the entire town. The proprietor of that motel said alright fellows, three of you can have this room for thirty dollars, they were all tired and said alright, we'll do it and so they paid their ten dollars apiece. A little bit later the proprietor got to feeling a little bit guilty making three strangers stay in the same room at ten dollars apiece. I said a little bit of remorse, and so he called the bellhop and gave him five one dollar bills and he said I want you to take these five dollar bills up give it back to those three gentlemen. On the way up the bellhop decided five dollars, three men; I don't know how that's going to happen so I'll give each of them a dollar, and I'll put two in my pocket. Each one of those men had now only paid nine dollars apiece for their room; three times nine is twenty-seven, the bellhop had kept two dollars, and that is twenty-nine dollars; what happened to the other dollar? Now I use that as an illustration to show you that if we try to calculate by the ways of the world you're always going to come up a dollar short.
Quite a number of years ago there was a convention going on in a certain town, there were three salesmen hit town, and there was only one motel room left in the entire town. The proprietor of that motel said alright fellows, three of you can have this room for thirty dollars, they were all tired and said alright, we'll do it and so they paid their ten dollars apiece. A little bit later the proprietor got to feeling a little bit guilty making three strangers stay in the same room at ten dollars apiece. I said a little bit of remorse, and so he called the bellhop and gave him five one dollar bills and he said I want you to take these five dollar bills up give it back to those three gentlemen. On the way up the bellhop decided five dollars, three men; I don't know how that's going to happen so I'll give each of them a dollar, and I'll put two in my pocket. Each one of those men had now only paid nine dollars apiece for their room; three times nine is twenty-seven, the bellhop had kept two dollars, and that is twenty-nine dollars; what happened to the other dollar? Now I use that as an illustration to show you that if we try to calculate by the ways of the world you're always going to come up a dollar short.