re: Help with riddle - How Much Money Did The Store Lose?

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That's a different item from the inventory with its own potential profit margin.

In any case, this has been a fun thought exercise

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Agreed. The question is effective because it manages to bog people down with clutter that isn't useful while subtly altering the way people approach it by presenting it as theft.

Replace the word 'theft' with 'give' and I don't think as many people would have trouble with it:

"A store gives a man a gift certificate for $100 and he purchases $70 in goods and receives $30 in change. How much did it cost the store?"

In both scenarios the person is shopping with $100 of 'house money', in both scenarios the math is the same, in both scenarios there are the same profit margins and labor costs. The only difference is one of them comes with moral baggage. But morality doesn't change math.