My friend Andrew was throwing a very grand party and wanted to borrow from me 100 wine glasses. I wanted to send them through my neighbour’s servant Harry.

Just to give an incentive to Harry to deliver the glasses intact I offered him 30 paise for every glass delivered safely and threatened to forefeit 90 paise for every glass he broke. On settlement, Harry received 24 Rupees from me.

How many glasses did Harry break ?

( Given: 1 Rupee = 100 Paise )

If Harry had delivered all the glasses intact he would have received 30x100 = 3000 Paise = 30 Rupee. Having received 24 Rupee Harry was 6 Rupee short of the maximum.

For every glass he broke he lost the bonus of 30 Paise and was also fined 90 Paise - ie a total loss of 120 Paise = 1.20 Rupee

Therefore Harry broke 5 glasses (=6/1.2).

Posted by fwaff on 2003-03-05 04:28:58