A fruit seller sold mangoes at ₹600 per box last month. This month, he first increased the price by 10% due to transportation cos…

Question

A fruit seller sold mangoes at ₹600 per box last month. This month, he first increased the price by 10% due to transportation costs and then offered a discount of 15% on the increased price. What is the final price of one box of mangoes?

1. A. ₹571
2. B. ₹541
3. C. ₹561 (Correct answer)
4. D. ₹551

Correct Answer

Option C — ₹561

Detailed Solution & Explanation

The correct answer is ₹561.

Shortcut Trick

• Combine the two changes into a single multiplier instead of computing each step in rupees.
• A 10% rise then a 15% discount gives $1.10 \times 0.85 = 0.935$.
• Final price $= 600 \times 0.935 = \textbf{₹561}$.

Alternate Method

• Increased price $= 600 + 10\% \text{ of } 600 = 600 + 60 = ₹660$
• Discount $= 15\% \text{ of } 660 = ₹99$
• Final price $= 660 - 99 = \textbf{₹561}$

Additional Information

• Successive changes never simply add. A 10% rise followed by a 15% fall is not −5%; by the net-change formula it is $10 - 15 - \dfrac{10 \times 15}{100} = -6.5\%$, and indeed $600 \times 0.935 = 561$, a fall of ₹39 = 6.5%.
• Order does not matter for successive multiplicative changes: $1.10 \times 0.85 = 0.85 \times 1.10$. Raising then discounting gives the same result as discounting then raising.
• The multiplier method scales to any number of changes — just multiply the factors, which is far faster than working through each stage in rupees.