Three men went into a cheap hotel, and asked for a room. The desk clerk gave them a room for 30 dollars. They each paid a ten dollar bill and went up to their room. A while later, the desk clerk realized that he had made a mistake - the room he had given them was only a 25 dollar room. He called the bell boy over, and handed him five dollar bills. "Take this up to Room 17 and give it to the men with my apologies". The bellboy figured that he had a chance to made some money here - since the men wouldn't know the difference, he just gave them back three dollars, and put two in his pocket.
So, the men had originally paid ten dollars each for the room. They each got one dollar back, which meant they paid nine dollars.
9 X 3 is 27. The bellboy kept two dollars. 27 + 2 is 29. What happened to the other dollar?

Right, the way it's written in the question is misleading and incorrect. They each paid $9. $9 x 3 is $27. This is exactly correct. $25 for the room plus $2 to the bellboy = $27.

Exactly. The correct way to phrase it would be that the men paid $9 each for the room (27 dollars) and each received one dollar in return (3 dollars) equaling thirty. The problem in the question is starting with the fact that the men paid $27 for the room. They didn't pay 27 dollars. They actually paid $25 altogether, received three in return and the bellboy got two; bringing it to a grand total of $30.

Agree with all of the above. Here's an analysis of how the original problem misleads the reader:

True, the men end up paying $27. But $25 is in the hotel's cash drawer, and $2 is in the bellboy's pocket. That can be expressed as ($25 + $2). But then the problem says that the men paid $27, the bellboy has $2, so where's the other dollar. The problem is actually counting the $2 the bellboy swindled *twice*, once with the $27 (25 + 2), and then again after.

It would be more obvious if the men were originally charged, say, $50. Then the bellboy is sent back up with $23. He decides to keep $20, and only return $3. So the men ended up paying $47, the bellboy has $20, so *now* how was an extra $17 generated?

agree to all,
just to simplify do not divide the money into three,
they paid 28 and that's it,
the bell boy kept the 2 for himself
so 28 + 2 = 30
never count it backwards and indiviual
like 9 x 3 = 27 plus 2= 29
that one dollar is still part of their payment. they paid 25 + 3 = so it is still 28!!!