DOMESTIC ECONOMY.
(
Money Puzzles)
Young Mrs. Perkins, of Putney, writes to me as follows: "I should be
very glad if you could give me the answer to a little sum that has been
worrying me a good deal lately. Here it is: We have only been married a
short time, and now, at the end of two years from the time when we set
up housekeeping, my husband tells me that he finds we have spent a third
of his yearly income in rent, rates, and taxes, one-half in domestic
expenses, and one-ninth in other ways. He has a balance of L190
remaining in the bank. I know this last, because he accidentally left
out his pass-book the other day, and I peeped into it. Don't you think
that a husband ought to give his wife his entire confidence in his money
matters? Well, I do; and--will you believe it?--he has never told me
what his income really is, and I want, very naturally, to find out. Can
you tell me what it is from the figures I have given you?"
Yes; the answer can certainly be given from the figures contained in
Mrs. Perkins's letter. And my readers, if not warned, will be
practically unanimous in declaring the income to be--something absurdly
in excess of the correct answer!
Answer:
Without the hint that I gave, my readers would probably have been
unanimous in deciding that Mr. Perkins's income must have been L1,710.
But this is quite wrong. Mrs. Perkins says, "We have spent a third of
his yearly income in rent," etc., etc.--that is, in two years they have
spent an amount in rent, etc., equal to one-third of his yearly income.
Note that she does _not_ say that they have spent _each year_ this sum,
whatever it is, but that _during the two years_ that amount has been
spent. The only possible answer, according to the exact reading of her
words, is, therefore, that his income was L180 per annum. Thus the
amount spent in two years, during which his income has amounted to L360,
will be L60 in rent, etc., L90 in domestic expenses, L20 in other ways,
leaving the balance of L190 in the bank as stated.
Informational
