vsp nailed it but I had already put this together so I'll post it anyway and thank lumberjim for clearly demonstrating why none of us has a chance in hell once we set foot into the finance manager's office
I'll start with a ledger (i.e., something they keep
two of in car dealerships :-). Also, I'll make a simplifying assumption and think of the three brothers as one customer. The way the question is worded implies that the person asking is tallying up the dollars and is one short. Everyone's
net position is shown before and after each transaction. At
any point, the two sides of the ledger when added, must equal zero.
Customer -30, Bellhop ±0 || Hotel +30 (Initial transaction)
Customer_ +3, Bellhop +2 || Hotel_ -5 (The refund)
--------------------------------------------------------
Customer -27, Bellhop +2 || Hotel +25 (The end result)
vsp's answer is now clear - the sign on the 2 and the 27 are not the same so the "29" never existed anywhere but in the question.