A shopkeeper offers a 15% discount on all plastic toys, and gives an additional 4% discount on the reduced price to customers who pay in cash. For a toy with a marked price of Rs 200, how much (in Rs) will a customer actually pay if the payment is made in cash?

Introduction / Context:
This question is about successive percentage discounts and how they affect the final selling price that a customer has to pay. Such problems are very common in competitive exams under the profit, loss and discount chapter, and they test whether the student understands that multiple discounts are applied one after another on the reduced price, and not added directly as simple percentages.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• The marked price of the plastic toy is Rs 200.
• The shopkeeper gives a first discount of 15% on the marked price.
• An additional discount of 4% is given on the already reduced price to customers who pay in cash.
• We assume there are no taxes or extra charges.

Concept / Approach:
To solve such questions, we use the percentage reduction formula step by step. A discount of d% on a price P means the new price is P * (1 - d/100). If two discounts are given successively, we apply the first discount, compute the reduced price, and then apply the second discount on that reduced price. It is important not to simply add the percentages (15% + 4% = 19%), because that would ignore the compounding effect of the discounts on different bases.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Marked price of the toy = Rs 200. Step 2: First discount = 15% of 200 = 0.15 * 200 = Rs 30. Step 3: Price after first discount = 200 - 30 = Rs 170. Step 4: Second discount = 4% of 170 = 0.04 * 170 = Rs 6.8. Step 5: Final price after both discounts = 170 - 6.8 = Rs 163.2. Step 6: Therefore, the customer pays Rs 163.2 when paying in cash.

Verification / Alternative check:
Instead of subtracting discount amounts, we can work with multiplying factors. The first discount of 15% means the price becomes 85% of the original: 200 * 0.85 = 170. Then a 4% discount makes the price 96% of 170: 170 * 0.96 = 163.2. This matches our earlier calculation, so the answer is consistent and verified.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

• 133.7: This is far lower than the correct price and could come from incorrectly applying a much higher total discount.
• 129.8: This also represents an excessive discount, possibly from mistakenly subtracting both percentages directly from 200 and then applying further errors.
• 153.3: This might come from applying only one discount or an incorrect order of operations.
• 160.0: This is close but incorrect, possibly from rounding or approximating the discounts rather than calculating accurately.

Common Pitfalls:
Students sometimes simply add 15% and 4% to say the total discount is 19% and then compute 19% of 200. That would give 200 * 0.81 = 162, which does not match the correct answer. The main mistake is ignoring that the second discount is on the already reduced price, not on the original marked price. Another common error is to round intermediate values aggressively, which can slightly change the final result in sensitive questions.

Final Answer:
The customer will have to pay Rs 163.2 for the toy when paying in cash after both discounts are applied.