[Rockhounds] A Mineral Puzzle

[Nathan Martin]

Larry,
A nice puzzle, it took a bit of thinking to get past the logical
inconsistency.  it is correct that they ended up paying $27 of which you
kept $25 and your wife spent $2.  The original $30 amount was no longer
relevant.
Keep up the good work!  Our brains (like our bodies) are in need of
exercise.
Nate Martin
Lexington, MA

On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 11:16 AM, Lawrence Rush
<larryrush at worldnet.att.net>wrote:

> The Celestite Sale- A Puzzle
>
>
>
> Last year, I was selling minerals at a Connecticut show, when a small
> family stopped by to look at my booth. The young boy, maybe nine or ten
> years old, was immediately taken by the electric blue color of a Madagascar
> Celestite I had for sale for $30. He couldn't take his eyes off of it, and
> started pestering his mother and father to buy it for him. Evidently he had
> been given $10 to spend at the show, but this far exceeded that. Finally,
> after a long period of pleading, his mother told the father that, if they
> each would chip in $10, he could buy it, and their contribution would count
> towards his birthday present, a few weeks away. This proved agreeable, they
> paid me the $30, and I wrapped up the specimen, to be proudly carried away
> by the youngster.
>
>
>
> A few minutes later, my wife returned from wandering, and I told her about
> the boy and the sale. She reminded me that the Celestite was marked as "on
> sale", for $25! She looked around, and saw the family not far away. I gave
> her five $1 bills to take to them, and off she went. However, on the way
> there, she stopped and bought a large soda, spending 2 of the 5 one dollar
> bills. So when she caught up with the family, she gave them only $3 as a
> refund, explaining that they had paid too much.
>
>
>
> The mother thanked my wife, took the three $1 bills, and gave one each to
> herself, her husband, and her son.
>
>
>
> This means that they each paid $9 for the Celestite, or a total of $27. If
> you add in the $2 she spent on the soda, the total came to $29.
>
>
>
> What happened to the other dollar????
>
>
>
>
>
> Larry Rush
>
>
>
> (Please do not copy without permission)
>
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