The Missing Dollar

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Three friends are traveling and decide to stay at a motel for the night. The manager tells them that a room costs $30. The friends split the cost, $10 each, and turn in for the night.

The next morning the manager realizes that he overcharged for the room. It should have been $25 for the night, not $30. The manager gives his assistant $5 and tells him to return it to the group before they check out and go on their way.

As the assistant is making his way to the room, he realizes that he can’t split the $5 evenly among the friends and so decides to give each of them a dollar and keep the last two for himself. The group is happy with their refund, and they go on their way. However, something mysterious has happened during this transaction:

The men originally paid $30 for the room, $10 each. If each member of the group received $1 back, then they each paid only $9 for the room ($27 total). If they paid $27, and the assistant kept $2 ($29 total), where did the missing dollar go?

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