Here's an ancient classic I suspect everyone has heard before. It isn't *exactly* a scam per se -- it's a story about a scam. Then again, the story itself is a scam. << Three men go to stay at a hotel, and the man at the desk charges them $30.00 for a room. They split the cost ten dollars each. Later the manager tells the desk man that he overcharged the men, that the actual cost should have been $25. The manager gives the bellboy $5 and tells him to give it to the men. The bellboy, however, decides to cheat the men and pockets $2, giving each of the men only one dollar. Now each man has paid $9 to stay in the room and 3 x $9 = $27. The bellboy has pocketed $2. $27 + $2.00 = $29 -- so where is the missing $1 ?

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(I remember how much this confused me when I first encountered it around age 7 -- foreshadowing the Fields medal that I was never to receive, many years later.) --Dan