A housewife saves Rs. 2.50 on buying an item during a sale. If she actually pays Rs. 25 for the item after the discount, approximately what percentage discount did she receive on the original marked price?

Introduction:
This is a basic percentage discount question in a real life shopping context. It tests whether you can reconstruct the original price from the discounted price and the saving, and then compute the discount as a percentage of the original price.

Given Data / Assumptions:
Amount paid after discount = Rs. 25.
Amount saved due to discount = Rs. 2.50.
Original price before discount = amount paid + saving.
We must find the percentage discount on the original price, approximately.

Concept / Approach:
The key is that the saving represents the difference between the marked price and the sale price. Once we compute the original price, the discount percentage is calculated using the formula (discount / original price) * 100. The question asks for an approximate percentage, so a rounded result is acceptable.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Amount paid after discount = Rs. 25. Saving due to discount = Rs. 2.50. Original price = amount paid + saving. Original price = 25 + 2.50 = Rs. 27.50. Discount amount = Rs. 2.50. Discount percentage = (discount / original price) * 100. So discount percentage = (2.50 / 27.50) * 100. Compute 2.50 / 27.50 ≈ 0.0909. Multiply by 100 to get percentage: 0.0909 * 100 ≈ 9.09%. Rounded to the nearest whole percent, this is about 9%.
Verification / Alternative check:
We can cross check by applying a 9% discount to the original price. 9% of 27.50 is 0.09 * 27.50 = 2.475, very close to Rs. 2.50. Subtracting this from the original price gives around Rs. 25.025, which is close to the given Rs. 25 the housewife paid. Because the question asks for an approximate percentage, 9% is a consistent and sensible answer.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Options like 8% or 10% produce discounts of 2.20 and 2.75 respectively on Rs. 27.50, which deviate more from Rs. 2.50 than the 9% case does. Similarly, 11% and 12% give even larger discounts. Therefore, 9% is the best approximation among the given choices.

Common Pitfalls:
A typical mistake is to compute the percentage as (2.50 / 25) * 100, which would take the sale price as the base instead of the original price. This yields a higher percentage and is not mathematically correct when defining discount. Always remember that discount percentage is based on the original marked price, not the reduced price.

Final Answer:
She received an approximate discount of 9% on the original price.