The Short Version
The arithmetic and conclusion are correct — assets of 97,000 in goods plus 1,000 in cash do equal the 98,000 remaining debt, and no money is missing. Khan Academy's explanation of this exact puzzle variant confirms the resolution. However, the claim's framing omits a key piece of context: the puzzle's confusion arises from improperly adding debt and asset figures together, a category-mixing fallacy. Simply asserting "debt equals assets" resolves the riddle's answer but doesn't explain the trick, and could itself be misread as endorsing the flawed logic the puzzle exploits.