eblc1388 said:The following question appears on a china forum frequented by (or at least would be)programmers and attracted over a hundred responses. At first glance the question looks straight forward but it does not seem to be the case judging from the various answers offered. Here it is:
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According to a gift shop manager, the cost of acquiring a gift for sale, after adding in all his overhead is $18. He is selling it for $21 to make a $3 profit.
One day, a boy went into the shop and bought a gift for $21. He handed the manager a $100 bill for payment. The manager does not have enough change available so he exchanged the $100 bill with next door's keeper for smaller bills and gave the boy $79 back as change.
The boy then left the shop with the gift and the $79 change.
Later his next door keeper reported that the $100 bill from the manager is fake and so the manager had to repay him $100 back from his own cashier.
Question:
How much, in money terms, did the manager lost in this particular transaction?
Answers put forward are $94, $97, $100, $118, $196 and $197.
What's yours?
Optikon said:The thief came with a fake $100 worth nothing. The thief left with $79 of real money + a gift worth $18. The actual monetary value lost by the store is $79 + $18 = $97
If it talks like a duck, and walks like a duck, then it must be a talking duck.eblc1388 said:Does everyone agree that if real money is used by the boy, the manager would have GAINED $3, instead of having incurred a loss?
HarveyH42 said:I would say $200.00. $21 gift + $79 change + $100 repay shop next door. The $21 gift is still a $21 loss, lost the product, sale, and profit.
But how do you lose something you never had? Like when a manufacturer checks a batch of products and they are all defective, they write-off the cost it took to produce the items and not the suggested retail price.Marks256 said:The $21 figure would be used because the $3 is profit lost. If the boy would have paid with real money, that $3 would have gone in to the till, but becuase the boy paid with fake money, that $3 isn't in the till, therefore it is money lost.
dknguyen said:But how do you lose something you never had? Like when a manufacturer checks a batch of products and they are all defective, they write-off the cost it took to produce the items and not the suggested retail price.
dknguyen said:But how do you lose something you never had? Like when a manufacturer checks a batch of products and they are all defective, they write-off the cost it took to produce the items and not the suggested retail price.
dknguyen said:So you're telling me that if you sold something on Ebay for $100, but it cost you $5 to make, then you would be steaming mad because you lost $100? Or would you just be dissapointed because you actually lost $5?
eblc1388 said:If the winner sent you a fake $100 bill and you have posted the item, then you have just lost $105 + ebay listing fees.
Of course you can comfort yourself saying you have only lost $5. This falls into exactly the same example I quoted earlier of losing a winning lottery ticket. If you lose it before the lottery open, you have lost a few dollars. If you lost it after it has become a winning ticket, you have lost the prize money.
If the item has not been posted, you have lost nothing except eBay listing fee.
Nobody cares how much is the cost of making the item. It can be $1, $5 or $1000.
If the winner have your item with him, then your claim is $100.
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