Something to Get You Thinking

When I was back in Melaka, my dad asked me a question. More like a brain teaser. Both my dad and I couldn't find an answer to the question. So I'm leaving it to you to work your brain and get me the answer.

The scenario

3 friends always go to this specific restaurant to have their lunch. One day, each of them ate for RM10. So they paid RM30 and left the restaurant. But the owner of the shop, knowing the 3 people are regular customers, asked the waiter in the shop to return RM5 to them. Since RM5 is hard to divide among 3 people, the waiter took RM2 and returned the remaining RM3 to each of the 3 friends.

So mathematically, each of them now ate for RM9. RM9 times by 3 (Number of people) gives you RM27. Add the RM2 that the waiter took, that leaves you with RM29. The question is, where is the RM1 gone?

Please enlighten me by leaving comments.