A Tangential Thought from that Sociology Class...

I just had another thought on my last post about the Econ class experiment.

It's an excellent representation of a misdirecting statement - it provides some information while phrasing other pieces in such a way to force your perspective into conformity.

This example came to mind:

Three men walk into a hotel to get a room for the night.  The manager at the front desk tells them that a room is $30 per night.  Since they're only staying one night, they each pony up $10 and head up to the room.  Shortly thereafter, the manager realizes he made a mistake and the cost of a room for the night it only $25, so he gives the bellhop $5 to take to the men.  On his way up, the bellhop realizes that splitting $5 evenly among three people is a very difficult task, so pockets $2 and gives the men the remaining $3.  So now each man has paid $9, equaling $27, and the bellhop has $2, for a total of $29.  Where's the last dollar?

Boom.

Now, would you assume a logical explanation for this phenomenon or simply be convinced that the last dollar vanished into thin air?  If you expect the former, I see no reason to swallow the tale of the economics professor hook, line, and sinker...