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 recieved 30 rupees.

If he broke a glass, he would not only have to pay the 90 paise 'fine', but also lose his 30 paise pay. So, every glass he broke takes away 120 paise.

30-24= 6 rupees, or 600 paise.
120 goes into 600 5 times, so Harry broke 5 glasses.

Posted by Lewis on 2003-06-22 08:38:56