Question

A trader quotes Rs.45 for an article whose cost price is Rs.30. The customer pays him a 50-rupee note. The trader does not have the chance to give back Rs.5 to the customer. He thus goes to the neighboring shop to get the change for Rs.50. The customer collects his balance Rs.5. The next day the owner of the neighboring shop realizes that the 50-rupee note was fake and demanded Rs.50 back from the trader who gave it. What is the total loss to the trader?
a) Rs.80
b) Rs.85
c) Rs.35
d) Rs.40

Answer 1

Hint: In this situation, the customer gave a fake note and bought items which cost Rs.35 to the trader. However, while taking change, the trader would have got a valid change of Rs.50 from the other trader. Thus, when he returns Rs.50 to the other trader, he does not face any loss from the exchange.

Complete step-by-step answer:

However, he returned Rs.5 to the customer, he paid him valid Rs.5.

Thus, value of the items given to the customer= Value of the object (cost price) + Rs.5 which was paid back to the customer = Rs.35+Rs.5=Rs. 40

Value of the money obtained from the customer=0 (as the 50-rupee note was fake)


Thus loss incurred by the trader= Value of the items given to the customer- Value of the money obtained from the customer= Rs.40-Rs.0=Rs.40

Thus, the loss faced by the trader is Rs.40 which matches option (d). Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

Note: We should not count the Rs.50 given to the other trader as loss because he had given change worth Rs.50 to the trader on the previous day.