This prints

{FAX=false, DESC=false, POST=false, ATT=false}

 here. Consider posting a SSCCE.

You're doing something else wrong.  Post a complete (simple, self-contained)
example and we'll tell you what's going on.

You're not telling us the whole story.  Something else in your code is
confusing you.

I see no such problem.

import java.util.Hashtable;
public class Test {
   public static Hashtable getTable() {
       Hashtable hashtable = new Hashtable();
       hashtable.put("DESC", Boolean.FALSE);
       hashtable.put("ATT", Boolean.FALSE);
       hashtable.put("POST", Boolean.FALSE);
       hashtable.put("FAX", Boolean.FALSE);
       return hashtable;
   }

   public static void main(String[] args) {
       Hashtable ht = getTable();
       System.out.println("number of entries: " + ht.size());
   }
}

$ java -version
java version "1.5.0_11"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_11-b03)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_11-b03, mixed mode)

$ java -cp . Test
number of entries: 4
--
Mark Rafn    dagon@dagon.net    <http://www.dagon.net/>

On Jun 19, 4:17 am, rln...@gmail.com wrote:

I guess you attached a debugger to examine the contents of the
hashtable and found only 3 entries there. What might have happened is
that there was a collision between 2 of your keys and thus one of the
colliding key was linearly chained with the other one. If you examine
the key in the hash table closely you will find a "next" element which
holds the key that collided with it. If this is not the case, then
there is some bug in your code. Please post the whole code.

Regards..