About the buttered toast thing... my dad was telling me about this lecturer who was demonstrating Murphy's Law; for those who don't know, it states: if anything can go wrong, it will. If it can't go wrong, it will go wrong anyway. In front of a large audience this lecturer made some toast and buttered it, then dropped it on the floor. The point is, whichever way it lands, he proves himself right. If it lands butter-side down, hooray, Murphy's Law's true. If it lands butter side up, the one time he wanted it to land butter side down it didn't. :P Brilliant, no? And I'm not sure if this constitutes a paradox, and I'm sure a lot of people will already know this, but anyway - Three people go into a restaurant and order meals. Their total bill comes to £30. They decide to pay equally and each pay with a £10 note, which the waiter takes. However for some reason the maitre d' asked for them to be reimbursed £5, and gives the waiter £5 to return to the table. This £5 is in pound coins, and so the waiter realises they won't be able to split it equally. So he pockets £2 for himself and returns £3 to the table. Each of the customers take a pound coin. So each customer originally paid 10, was given back 1, therefore they paid £9 each - a total of £27. The waiter took £2 for himself - where did the other pound go? Silly foreign money confusing me.. But in terms of US Dollars.. $10 + $10 + $10 = $30 total bill Bill is reduced to $25. You now have $5 extra. $2 is pocketed and $3 is returned. So $25 bill + $2 tip + $3 returned = $30 original dollars. The extra dollars was lost in the incorrect math of the riddle. The riddle does.. 9+9+9=27, 27+2=29, 29=/=30 Each customer paid $9. The waiter has $2. The bossman has $25. So 9+9+9=27=25+2 or the total amount paid. The tip should not be added to how much the customers paid, or the $27, but rather to the deposit they made of $25.