The Riddle that wouldn't die...

I am here to tell you a story, my friends... the story of the riddle that wouldn't die .

It all happened nearly 10 years ago. I was navigating a merchant vessel to Shelbyville. I had an onion on my belt because that was the fashion at the time. You see, back then a nickel was called a 'bee'. You'd say "Give me 5 bees for a quarter." But I'm getting ahead of myself... Let me start from the beginning...

It was 1994. Matt Weng, Justin Ronco, and I (among many others) were in the beginning months of the dreaded 8th grade. We were dorks, I admit it. Our idea of a fun night was watching Star Trek and talking about Isaac Asimov. Now, it just so happened that in the back of Matt's math book, there were some math riddles. Seeing how matt is a pretty smart guy, he was able to solve all but one. So during one of our weekly sleep-overs, Matt showed us the riddle and asked if we could help him solve it. 3 smart guys against one 8th grade level riddle...easy right? Oh no...

we sat up ALL night. We argued. We acted it out. We even used monopoly money. Finally in the wee hours of the morning, we had the answer. And then we vowed to never speak of that night again, nor of the riddle.

But it was not the riddles will to die...it wanted to live...

Over the years, the riddle would cross my path many times. It seemed that any time people conversed about riddles, the It-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named riddle would be asked. The worst part is that I had repressed the answer in my head so each time it was asked of me I would have to sit down and figure it out all over again. For some reason, no one ever knew the answer when they asked...the had never figured it out.

The reason I bring it all up is because this happened to me just a few days ago. While working with my father at WYSP in Philly, his friend decided he could stump me with riddles. It sounded harmless. He wasn't a smart guy. There was no way he could know the riddle that could pierce my very soul. Oh, but he did. The best part was, he didn't know the answer either!! So not only did I have to figure it out for myself, I had to explain it to him too! It took 30 minutes and 3 tries before he understood the answer.

I hate this damn riddle. It's not that hard. Once you know the answer (and while you still remember it), it's all so obvious. You wonder why you didn't figure it out in 10 seconds. But I hate it with every fiber of my being (and some of my oats too).

So here it is... For those stupid people out there I'll post the answer in a few days...

3 men go to a hotel and get a room. The room costs $30 so each man pays $10. Then they all go to the room and relax. Well, a few minutes later, the guy at the front desk realizes that he overcharged the 3 men. The room actually costs $25. So he hands the bellhop $5 to return to the 3 men. While the bellhop is walking, he figures that since $5 can't split 3 ways he'll just give $1 back to each man and keep $2 for himself. So he does that. Now with a dollar back, each man has paid $9...totalling $27. That, plus the $2 that the bellhop is holding, totals $29. They started with $30. What happened to the missing dollar?