The Missing Dollar

This riddle uses "informal fallacy," or intentionally creating a fallacy.

Three businessmen, after a long day at work, check into a hotel and rent a room for one night. The total fee is $30 for the whole room, which the businessmen decide to split up into three parts, or 10 dollars each. However, when the bellhop gives the money to the clerk, the clerk realizes that this was the hotel's discount week, and a $5 dollar discount would normally happen. The clerk tells the bellhop to return $5 to the three customers.

However, on the way there, the bellhop realizes that he can't split $5 evenly without counting change. He decides to take $2 for himself and gives $3 back to the businessmen so that they each get a dollar back.

So, the businessmen, after paying $10, each got a dollar back. This means they paid $9 each. 9 times 3 is $27, and after adding the two dollars the bellhop took, it's $29.

The businessmen paid $30. Where did the missing dollar go?

"What am I" riddles

(see below for the answers)

1) I get wet when drying, I get dirty from drying. What am I?

2) I can be cracked, made, told, and played. What am I?

3) I can fly but have no wings. I can cry but have no eyes. Wherever I go, darkness follows me. What am I?

4) The more you take of me, the more you leave behind. What am I?

Answers:
1) towel
2) a joke
3) a cloud
4) footsteps

Two Doors and One Way Out

Another riddle that I made for fun. Enjoy.

Two Doors and One Way Out

A trader walks into a village one morning and gets some food from the local inn. At the inn, he finds three people already in there. The three people apparently are described to have the ability to tell the future, so the man decides to try their ability out. The man also knows that out of the three people, two lie and one tells the truth, and their information is extremely accurate. The man asks the three people what his day will be like, and the three people answer in this respective order:

"You will step into a pit of snakes."

"You will spend the night in a safe house."

"You will live through the night."

Though this sounds very mysterious, the man ventures onto the next village across the mountain to trade some goods. The man is walking through the mountain to get to the village, but gets lost. The man wanders around aimlessly in the darkness of night, until he comes across two doors.

A sign next to the two doors explains the rules for choosing a door. The left door is a safe house with food, water, and warmth. The right door leads into a pit of poisonous snakes. The man can only choose one door, and once chosen, there is no turning back.

The man considers not choosing a door at all, but then hears a pack of hungry wolves howling extremely close by. The man knows that he stinks due to a hard day hiking, and knows that the wolves will smell him sooner or later. Also, it is supposed to be very cold and snowy outside that night, and the man does not want to die of hypothermia or frostbite of some sort.

The man then narrows his choices down to three options:

-Choose the door on the left, which is a safe house.

-Choose the door on the right, which leads into a pit of snakes.

-Don't choose a door.

The man then remembers what the three people in the inn had said at the beginning of the day, and instantly knows what to do.

What did the man choose to do?

Elementary, My Dear Wason

This riddle was created by psychologist Peter Wason some time ago as an aptitude test, and only 20% of applicants tend to get this test right. Credits goes to Einstein's Riddle, by Jeremy Stangroom, for the majority of this riddle.

An officer is presented with four cards, and is told that they have been manufactured according to this rule:

"If a card has a circle on one side, then it has the color yellow on the other."

He is then informed that every card does have a shape on one side and a color on the other. To pass the test, the officer simply has to identify which of the four cards it is necessary to turn over, and only that or those cards, in order to determine whether the manufacturing rule has been upheld.

The four cards are as follows:

Which card or cards does he need to turn over in order to check whether the manufacturing rule has been upheld?

The Classic Portrait Riddle

A man points at a portrait, and then says:
"Brothers and sisters have I none,
but that man's father is my father's son."
At whose picture is the man looking?

The Poker Man's Dilemma

Here's a little riddle that I created for fun:

The Poker Man's Dilemma

Eight men are playing poker: Larry, Gary, Barry, Darry, Harry, Jerry, Perry, and Freddy. They are seated in a circle, facing inward.

Two of the men have excellent poker faces that can trick anyone except each other.

Four of the men have moderate poker faces that can trick one distinct person each, but can't trick the rest.

Two of the men have very bad poker faces that can't trick anyone.

·         Gary can trick Larry.

·         Larry sits next to someone with an excellent poker face.

·         Jerry can only trick Perry.

·         Perry sits left of someone with a bad poker face and sits right of someone with an excellent poker face.

·         Freddy can trick Jerry and Perry.

·         Freddy is in between two men both with moderate poker faces.

·         There are 3 men in between the two men with excellent poker faces.

·         Darry is only tricked by two men.

·         Jerry sits between two men with moderate poker faces.

·         Barry sits next to Larry.

·         Perry tricks Larry with his poker face.

·         The two men with bad poker faces sit next to each other.

·         Harry sits next to Freddy.

·         The two men with excellent poker faces cannot trick each other.

·         Freddy only has one man whom he cannot trick.

·         Darry can trick one of two people who he sits next to.

·         Three of the men with moderate poker faces all sit in the same area without anyone else in between.

·         Harry can trick Jerry.

·         Larry sits next to Gary.

·         Perry sits two away from Larry.

·         Perry has a moderate poker face.

·         Barry can fool no one.

Gary is suspicious of the people next to him, both left and right.

Can Gary trust the poker faces of the two people next to him and not be tricked? And why?

Note: The two men who have excellent poker faces CAN be tricked by anyone. Also, if the hints above say that A can trick B, this can also mean that A can trick B, C, and D, and not only B. If the hint says that A can trick ONLY B, this means that A cannot trick anyone other than B.