I entered a store and spent one-half of the money that was in my wallet. When I came out I found that I had just as many paise as I had rupees and half as many rupees as I had paise when I went in.

How much money did I have with me when I entered the store ?

( Given: 1 Rupee = 100 Paise ).

(In reply to re(3): A different interpretation by Ravi Raja)

I noticed with Tom's observation also when I was solving this. It all rests on how you refer to coins. To use American denominations, if you had 196 1-cent pieces, would you say you had 196 pennies, or one dollar and 96 cents? Either would be considered correct.

So if the person started with 198 dollar bills and 196 pennies ($199.96 in the wallet), and left with 98 dollar bills and 198 pennies ($99.98) , both requirements would be met.

By following this logic, there are an infinite number of solutions. However at a certain point, it becomes just silly - carring 980 pennies would begin to get a bit heavy.

Posted by Ender on 2003-03-17 07:17:00