While walking in a park, one morning, I found a Hundred Rupee note on one of the park benches. I picked it up, noted the number and took it home.

In the afternoon the plumber called on me to collect his bill. As I had no other moey at home, I settled his account with the Hundred Rupee note that I had found.

Later I came to know that the plumber paid the note to his milkman to settle his monthly account , who paid it to his tailor for the garments he had made.

The tailor in turn used the money to buy an old sewing machine, from a woman who lives in my neighbourhood. This woman incidentally, had borrowed Hundred Rupees from me sometime back to buy some household appliance. She, remembering that she owed me a Hundred Rupees, came and paid the debt.

I recognized the note as the one that I had found on the park bench, and on careful examination, I discovered that the note was counterfeit.

How much was lost in the whole transaction and by whom ?

(In reply to The Solution by charles)

Charles, you have mentioned the following in your comment: "The guy who discovered the bill was counterfeit could potentially now go on to buy something else with it, since its obviously a good enough forgery for four people not to catch it." But because of the same reason his neighbour paid her the same amount borrowed from him using the same counterfeit note. So, what happens if everytime he goes on to buy something and the note comes back to him after a few (after a finite number of) transactions ?

Posted by Ravi Raja on 2003-03-31 23:25:39