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View Full Version : Gamer Humor Someone is a thief... and I can't figure out who it is!



Tawmis
2019-07-19, 12:20 AM
So the party of three (A Fighter - Dave, A Cleric - Marcy, and a Wizard - Mark) all roll up to a small town after fighting some goblins.
Weary, and in need of a long rest they pay the Inn Keeper's son 30 gold (each paying 10 gold from their recent battle!) and head up to the room.
The Inn Keeper came out, scolded his son, because it was The Holy Moon (Eclipse) and says it's only 25 gold. Hands his son 5 gold to give back.
As the son is walking back to the room, he realizes there's no even way to split 5 gold between the three party members, so he pockets two gold "for his troubles."
He gets to their room and hands them back, each 1 gold coin.
So now each of them has paid 9 gold, since they each got a 1 gold refund.
So 9 gold x 3 party members is 27 + 2 gold the Inn Keeper's son kept is... 29 gold.
So where is the missing gold coin?

:smallwink:

Lord Raziere
2019-07-19, 12:39 AM
So the party of three (A Fighter - Dave, A Cleric - Marcy, and a Wizard - Mark) all roll up to a small town after fighting some goblins.
Weary, and in need of a long rest they pay the Inn Keeper's son 30 gold (each paying 10 gold from their recent battle!) and head up to the room.
The Inn Keeper came out, scolded his son, because it was The Holy Moon (Eclipse) and says it's only 25 gold. Hands his son 5 gold to give back.
As the son is walking back to the room, he realizes there's no even way to split 5 gold between the three party members, so he pockets two gold "for his troubles."
He gets to their room and hands them back, each 1 gold coin.
So now each of them has paid 9 gold, since they each got a 1 gold refund.
So 9 gold x 3 party members is 27 + 2 gold the Inn Keeper's son kept is... 29 gold.
So where is the missing gold coin?

:smallwink:

Thats.....not how that works.

the innkeeper has 25 gold. the son has two, the three adventurers each have one. that adds up to 30, there is no missing gold coin.

is the joke about how the innkeeper should have gave them all a 20% discount and thus give the son 6 six coins to split evenly but didn't? and why didn't he just not mention the discount if he is that greedy, he could just have all thirty coins.

Tawmis
2019-07-19, 01:03 AM
Thats.....not how that works.
the innkeeper has 25 gold. the son has two, the three adventurers each have one. that adds up to 30, there is no missing gold coin.
is the joke about how the innkeeper should have gave them all a 20% discount and thus give the son 6 six coins to split evenly but didn't? and why didn't he just not mention the discount if he is that greedy, he could just have all thirty coins.

It's indeed a joke (that's why it has the D&D Humor tag on it) :)

It's an old Math thing our teacher did to us way, way, way, way back in High School (that was a long time ago for me) but using dollars instead of gold... and in the 5e forum there was a debate about the size of something fitting into a bag of holding, which turned into a math question of physics, cubes, and dimensions of the bag's opening... which reminded me of this joke/riddle. That if you tell a math problem a specific way it sounds like there's a missing dollar (or gold coin).

Because if each paid 10 gold/dollars.
Then they all got 1 back as a refund, means they paid 9.
Plus the 2 the bell boy kept.
3 x 9 = 27 + 2 = 29.
It looks like a missing dollar / coin.

And when my math teacher first told it to the class (right before the bell rung for the day)... my mind nearly exploded trying to figure it out.

MrSandman
2019-07-19, 02:01 AM
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.

Tawmis
2019-07-19, 02:19 AM
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).

caden_varn
2019-07-19, 02:56 AM
10 gold pieces for a room??? That is one expensive inn.

MrSandman
2019-07-19, 03:10 AM
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).

Oh! So the trick is in realising that the calculation are wrong, not in any mathematical principle?

Mordaedil
2019-07-19, 03:49 AM
Technically, the gold coin is already calculated for in the original sum. You're supposed to add the 3 gold coins they saved, as the 2 the bellhop kept for himself is already part of the originally paid 30. It's not that difficult to figure out and is an obvious misdirection, but one that has caused massive problems in real life.

Khedrac
2019-07-19, 04:34 AM
Oh! So the trick is in realising that the calculation are wrong, not in any mathematical principle?

Yes - exactly this. It is a very very old trick maths question.

Lord Torath
2019-07-19, 08:02 AM
It's indeed a joke (that's why it has the D&D Humor tag on it) :)

It's an old Math thing our teacher did to us way, way, way, way back in High School (that was a long time ago for me) but using dollars instead of gold... and in the 5e forum there was a debate about the size of something fitting into a bag of holding, which turned into a math question of physics, cubes, and dimensions of the bag's opening... which reminded me of this joke/riddle. That if you tell a math problem a specific way it sounds like there's a missing dollar (or gold coin).

Because if each paid 10 gold/dollars.
Then they all got 1 back as a refund, means they paid 9.
Plus the 2 the bell boy kept.
3 x 9 = 27 + 2 = 29.
It looks like a missing dollar / coin.

And when my math teacher first told it to the class (right before the bell rung for the day)... my mind nearly exploded trying to figure it out.Why are we adding 2 to the 27? We got to 27 by adding the 2 to 25! That's where the error lies. If you subtract the 2 from the 27, then you get to the 25 the innkeeper kept.

Particle_Man
2019-07-19, 09:12 AM
10 gold pieces for a room??? That is one expensive inn.

Could be the “adventurers’ special” as who else has platinum coins to plunk on the counter?

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0122.html

Phhase
2019-07-19, 07:55 PM
Oh, this one is nice. I like this one. I'm gonna enjoy telling this to friends. Noone expects the true error point to be "So if they each paid 9"!

Tawmis
2019-07-19, 09:10 PM
Oh, this one is nice. I like this one. I'm gonna enjoy telling this to friends. Noone expects the true error point to be "So if they each paid 9"!

Prepare for your friends to hate you. :smallbiggrin: