Jayk

Here is a riddle that I have been working on for a few weeks with no answer yet.

Any help would be appreciated.

3 men are traveling together and walk into a hotel to stay the night. To save on money, they decide to share a room. They walk up to the front desk and told by the clerk that the room will cost $30. So each of the travelers give him $10 and he gives them the room key.

A few minutes later, the hotel clerk realizes that he made a mistake and the price is really $25 and he owes the travellers $5. However, the clerk did not have the correct change to pay back to the travelers.

So the clerk decided that instead of notifying the travlelers that he owes them $5, he will give them each $1 and pocket the remaining $2 for himself.

And that is what he did.

However, a major question remains.

The travelers started off by each one paying $10, which was a total of $30.

Then the clerk gave each one back $1 and pocketed the other $2.

So turns out that each travelr paid $9 for the room.

$9 x 3 travelers is $27. The clerk pocketed $2 for himself. $27 + $2 is $29.

What happened to the other dollar????