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 re(3): The solution by Ravi Raja)

I agree that if each person were to give 100 rupees to the next person in line (narrator to plumber, ... , woman to narrator), that all accounts would be settled.

But de facto, that's not necessary as it merely is making a circle back to the narrator.

But, more to the point, before the incident this had not been the case. The only owing that existed before the incident was the woman owed 100 rupees to the narrator and the narrator owed 100 rupees to the plumber. The situation now is, de facto, that the woman has paid off the narrator's plumbing bill, settling both debts. De jure, it would require the actually pointless passing around of a 100-rupee note.

Posted by Charlie on 2003-04-18 09:29:12