Hmmm. I've spent far too long thinking about this. The thing that we have to realize is that in the end, we're not trying to get to 30, we're trying to reach 25. The problem does a remarkable job of convincing us that we're trying to reach $30, which is a completly irelevant figure.

In the begining, they put in $30, the manager takes all of it, and we're at zero.

After that, they put in 27, the manager takes 25, the bell hop takes 2, and we're at zero.

In the arithmetic, they put in 9, the bell hop puts in 2, and we get to 29, but the question remains is how they managed to get the bell hop to put money in instead of taking money out. Must have something to do with the fact that there are three guys in a cheap hotel room.

That's a damn good mind trick. I still want to beleive it, even though I understand why it's false.

Matthew