I remembered this one a while ago, and it's still fun to give to people.

A man has $2, but he needs $3 for the bus fare home. Here's what he does:

He pawns his $2 for $1.50, and he sells that ticket for another $1.50.

He now has $3. Who is out the extra dollar, and why?

] The $1.50 he gets from the pawn he keeps, but the ticket that is worth $2.00 (if paid back for $1.50 he received) he sells for $1.50 to get the $3.00 he needs.

I assume this is the same "puzzle" as the more famous version with three hotel patrons and a busboy, or three restaurant patrons and a waiter. Did you forget a part? The man starts with $2 needing a ticket, and then in the very next line you say he sells a ticket. What ticket? He doesn't have a ticket to sell for $1.50...

The logic doesn't follow.

The man has $2 only. Cool.
Pawns $2 for $1.50. Idiot, but cool, anyway.
He sells that ticket for---- which ticket?

I would assume he means the ticket from the Pawn Shop.

The person out the money would be the person stuck with the pawn ticket.

That would be true, if (as the riddle states) somebody was stupid enough to buy the pawn ticket. A pawn ticket is just proof that a sale took place and that cash was received in return, but has no intrinsic value. It would be like trying to sell a receipt for "cash received" to someone. The only thing you can do with a pawn ticket is take it back to the pawn shop, show it and then buy back the original item ($2) at the price it was sold for ($1.50), or probably more, so paying an additional $1.50 (or more) for that pawn ticket would mean he spent (at least) $3 in total to get the original $2 from the pawn shop.

So in summary, the dumb guy who bought the pawn ticket loses the $1 that the original guy has gained, and possibly more if the guy at the pawn shop also makes a small profit when he sells back the original $2 for more than $1.50.

No, that is not how pawning works.

The loser here is the buyer of the ticket.

When you turn in a ticket to get something back that you pawned, you must pay how much they gave you plus interest.

So the man who buys the ticket does the following:

1. Buys the ticket for $1.50
2. Pays $1.50 plus any interest (we will assume no interest here) to get the item
3. Receives the $2.00 item


Notice that during the above steps, he payed $1.50 two times, and received only $2.00 total. So he is the one who loses the dollar.

#howstupiddoyouthinkIam

If you read my post again, you will see that is *exactly* the answer and explanation I gave - where is the discrepancy?

Though I do think your explanation was much clearer - I was kind of thinking out loud!

Honestly, I was too lazy to read that wall of text I was responding directly to earlier posters who do not know how the pawning system works. I didn't even read your answer...