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The owner of a ration store sells sugar sacks weighing 50Kg for \$50, but he gives a special discount to his neighbors, and sells it to them for \$45.

One day the owner, whose name is Jack, left the store and left his employee Jony in charge. Two of his neighbors, Tom and Jane, bought a sack of sugar together and spent \$50, each of them paying \$25.

Unfortunately, Jony sold the sack to them without knowing that they are his boss's neighbors.

When Jack came back to the store, he saw that Jony made a mistake, so he sent him to pay Tom and Jane a \$5 discount.

Jony stole \$2 from the 5\$ and gave \$1.50 each to Tom and Jane, giving them a total of \$3. So now Tom and Jane have paid \$25 - \$1.50 = \$23.50.

Each one paid 23.50\$, so both Tom and Jane paid \$23.50 + \$23.50 = \$47 together.

Jony stole \$2, so the total is \$47 + \$2 = \$49

Where is the missing \$1?

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  • $\begingroup$ If he takes \$3, there is \$1 extra. :p $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 16, 2015 at 11:45

4 Answers 4

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The trick to this puzzle is

that it gets you to add when you should really subtract.

The last line: "So total is \$47+\$2=\$49" should be

\$47-\$2=\$45 because the final cost is now $45

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He took the money from the customers, not from the store.

Once Jack returns to the store, the final cost of the item is \$50-\$5=\$45. Let's break it down into a series of actions.

\$50 - \$5
\$25 + \$25 - \$5
\$25 + \$25 - \$2 - \$1.50 - \$1.50
\$25 - \$1.50 + \$25 - \$1.50 - \$2
\$23.50 + \$23.50 - \$2
\$47 - \$2

Your final statement has reversed this subtraction into an addition.

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This puzzle is for Accountants. Accounts were made wrong.

Correct:- \$50 he received, so +50

\$5 he gave, so -5(3 discount given \& 2 stolen by employee)

So ultimately storekeeper has \$45 remains.

\$5 Debit , \$45 Credit=totals \$50

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Seeing it from another way is...

Jack would have benefit of \$2 when he could sold it for \$47 instead of \$45

Your final addition \$23.50 + \$23.50 = \$47 tells same thing that seller is benefited from consumer by \$2 but now Jony is the person who stole that part.

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