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 )

(In reply to re: It is hard to get good help these days! by Ravi Raja)

Hey, Ravi, I don't like it any better than you, but the truth is, Harry pulled one over on us:

He delivered 80 glasses safely @ 30 paise each = 24 Rupees
He kept 20 glasses for himself, being careful not to break any

Because he did not break any glasses, Harry does not forfeit any money. And while I feel it is necessary for me to pay him the 24 Rupees in order to honor the deal I made with him (a gentleman's word), I won't have any compunction reporting this swindle to my neighbor, his employer!

Posted by Bryan on 2003-03-06 08:53:14