3 guys get a hotel room for $30-[$10 each]-the mgr later thinks he charged them too much and should have charged them $25 so he sends the bellboy back to them to give them $5--on the way the bellboy says to himself i am going to keep $2 and give them back $3 so he does that--now each guy got back $1 so instead of paying $10 each they paid $9 each--3 times $9 is $27 and the bellboy kept $2 which makes $29------------------what happen to the other dollar?

hi jim---look--with all due respect--u can't avoid it or go around it with other formulae--the FACT is they paid $10 each but got back $1 each so they paid $9 each which totals $27 they paid for the room--- [FACT] the bellboy kept $2--- [FACT]that adds up to $29 dollars according to grammar school mathematics---account for the missing dollar

ok--correct--u said it--there r lots of answers--$1 missing is one of those answers --the point of this old conundrum is that math is an arbitrary dicipline that works in contrary ways to it's supposed rules nonetheless--