New Barber Math

RAY: The last guy obviously saw nothing in there.

So the next to last guy, i.e., the third customer had to have seen $10 dollars because he matched it and took out $20.

TOM: And there was nothing left.

RAY: In order for him to have left $10 in there, the guy before him in had to have seen $15 dollars in the cash register. He matched it. That made $30 dollars in the cash register.

TOM: Took out $20, left $10.

RAY: The first guy when he opened it saw $17.50. He matched it, took out his $20 and left $15 bucks. Do we have a winner?

TOM: It's Richard Wenck from San Raphael, California. And for having his answer selected at random from among the thousands of correct answers that we got, Richard Wenck from San Raphael gets a $26 dollar gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division of Cartalk.com.

And with that certificate he can get our brand-new official Car Talk unmarked bill carrier which is actually a gym bag. We put unmarked bill carrier on it because we thought that sounded better than rancid sock carrier. And in retrospect I think that was still a good decision.

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]