economics

I got into an argument with a friend of mine lasting an hour without reaching a consent. I told him a story: "a russian goes into a hotel and leaves 100$ on the counter saying that he goes upstairs to see the rooms, and if he doesn't like the rooms he will come back and take his money back. The hotel owner comes after 1 minute, sees the money ant takes it, paying the meat distributor that supplied the hotel restaurant. The meat guy pays the animal food guy that pays for his whore. All with the same 100 bill. The whore then goes to the hotel and pays for her room with the 100 bill and leaves. The russian comes back down takes the money and leaves. And thus, nothing was lost, nothing was gained, but everybody paid their debts." My friend says no this is not true, that a debt was lost somewere, that the circle is not closed etc. Who is right??? with arguments please

When the bill is on the counter, it effectively still belongs to the russian since he hasn't decided to spend it yet.  So the hotel owner is actually stealing the $100 from the russian.  Everything in between is legit, but when the russian grabs his $100, it belongs to the hotel owner, so he is stealing back his own money from the owner.  So the owner basically paid his meat bill with the $100 from the whore.

If anyone owes anyone else anything, the owner owes the russian interest for borrowing his money.