A group of friends rents a hotel room for 30. Each friend pays 10, totaling 30. The hotel manager discovers they overcharged and refunds each friend 1, making the total cost 27. The bellboy, who was g

The friends initially paid $30. They received$1 back each, totaling 3. $$ \text{Amount paid by friends} = \30 - (3 \times $1) = $30 - $3 = $27 $$

The hotel received $25 for the room. The bellboy kept$2. $\text{Money to hotel} + \text{Money to bellboy} = \$25 + \$2 = \$27$

The riddle's calculation ($27 +$2 = $29) is incorrect because the$27 that the friends effectively paid already includes the $2 that the bellboy kept. You should not add the bellboy's$2 to the $27 the friends paid, as that 2 is part of the 27. Instead, the$27 is the total amount that was distributed between the hotel and the bellboy.

The missing dollar is a result of an incorrect summation. There is no missing dollar.