One day a man, who looked like a tourist, came to a bicycle shop and bought a bicycle from a shop for $70. The cost price of the bicycle was $60. So the shopkeeper was happy that he had made a profit of $10 on the sale. However, at the time of setting the bill, the tourist offered to pay in travellers cheques as he had no cash money with him. The shopkeeper hesitated. He had no arrangement with the banks to encash travellers cheques. But he remembered that his friend, the shopkeeper next door, has such a provision, and so he took the cheques to his friend next door and got cash from him.
The travellers cheques were all of $20 each and so he had taken four cheques from the tourist totalling to $80. On encashing them the shopkeeper paid back the tourist the balance of $10.
The tourist happily climbed the bicycle and pedaled away whistling a tune.
However, the next morning shopkeeper’s friend who had taken the travellers cheques to the bank called on him and returned the cheques which had proved valueless and demanded the refund of his money. The shopkeeper quietly refunded the money to his friend and tried to trace the tourist who had given him the worthless cheques and taken away his bicycle. But the tourist could not be found.
How much did the shopkeeper lose altogether in this unfortunate transaction?
Answer
One can think of different answers for this question, but yet the correct answer is very simple. All we have to consider is that the shop owner could not have possibly lost more than the tourist actually stole.
The tourist got away with the bicycle which cost the shop owner $60 and the $10 ‘change’ , and therefore, he made off with $70. And this is the exact amount of the shopkeeper’s loss.
Source of The Puzzle:
Puzzle 7, Puzzles to Puzzle You
© Shakuntala Devi, 1976
This puzzle is l’ll modified than the original.
Filed under: Featured, Fun Stuff, Math, Problems
