A man decides to buy a nice horse. He pays $600 for it and he is very content with this strong animal. After a year the value of the horse has increased to $700 and he decides to sell the horse. But a few days later he regrets his decision so he buys back the horse again. Unfortunately he has to pay $800 to get it back so he loses $100. After another year of owning the horse he finally decides to sell the horse for $900. What is the overall profit the man makes?

Why this works

To solve this riddle, we break down the transactions step by step. Initially, the man buys the horse for $600 and later sells it for $700, making a profit of $100 at that point. When he buys it back for $800, he incurs a loss of $100 overall from that transaction. However, when he finally sells the horse for $900, he makes another profit of $100 on top of the $100 he had previously gained. Thus, when we add the final profit from the last sale ($100) to the initial profit before buying it back ($100), his overall profit comes to $200. The trick lies in keeping track of each transaction's gains and losses, showing that profit can accumulate through multiple exchanges.