A man steals $100 from a shop—but how much does the shop owner actually lose? This viral riddle has stumped the internet with its tricky math.
A Man Steals $100 from a Shop: Try to Solve the Viral Riddle
Updated on Jun. 09, 2025
A man steals $100 from a shop. What happens next is the subject of one of the most debated and challenging riddles ever to hit the internet. It’s a deceptively simple scenario that tests how we think about loss, value and basic math.
This riddle isn’t just about theft—it’s about logic. It’s been puzzling readers for years, because the answer you get depends on how you interpret the chain of events. If you think you’ve got it figured out, you might want to think again.
Reader’s Digest walks you through the viral “a man steals $100 from a shop” riddle, and gives you the definitive answer. Keep reading to see the full riddle—and the explanation.
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Riddle: A man steals $100 from a shop
Here’s the full text of the riddle: A man steals a $100 bill from a shop. He then uses that $100 bill to buy $70 worth of goods. The shop owner hands him back $30 in change. How much money did the shop owner lose?
What you’re thinking
The shop owner lost $100 right off the bat, but they get that $100 bill back almost immediately. Then the confusion starts. With all the numbers being bandied about, you might think this seemingly short riddle requires some lengthy calculations. Here are the scenarios:
Of the $100 stolen from him, the shopkeeper keeps only $70, handing back $30 to the thief. Because this transaction results in the shop owner having $30 less in the cash register, you might be thinking that the answer is $30. Or is it the $70 in merchandise that the shopkeeper will have to replace?
The thief walks away with $70 worth of goods. Is the shop owner down the original $100 plus that $70 in stuff, adding up to a total loss of $170? Or perhaps it’s that the shop owner is down the original $100 bill plus the $30 in change he handed over at the end? It could also certainly appear that the shop owner lost $200, the sum of the original $100 bill plus the $70 in merchandise and the $30 he handed to the thief as change.
Like all the best math riddles, the answer to this one is not what it seems. In fact, when you get right down to it, it might not even qualify as a math riddle. Or it might be the simplest math riddle ever.
The answer
What’s the “a man steals $100 from a shop” riddle answer? How much did the shop owner lose?
It’s simple: $100.
The explanation
This famous riddle is intended to confuse you, but don’t let it. If a man walks into a shop, sidles over to the cash register and manages to extract a $100 bill, that’s precisely what the shop owner has lost. Whatever happens after that is nothing more than a bit of “shuffling about” of that same $100.
To break it down to the simplest terms: The thief walked in with $0, and walked out with $100: $70 in merchandise and $30 in change. The thief has converted his $100 haul into another form of the same $100, and that is precisely what the shop owner has lost.
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