A salesman purchases an article for and sells it a loss of 20%. Had he paid…

2024

A salesman purchases an article for and sells it a loss of 20%. Had he paid 15% less for buying the article and sold it at Rs.50 more, he would have made a profit of 30%. (Calculate approximate value):

  1. A.

    Rs.130

  2. B.

    Rs.164

  3. C.

    Rs.125

  4. D.

    Rs.345

Attempted by 5 students.

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B

Let the original cost price be x.

He sells at a loss of 20%, so the selling price is 0.8x.

If he had paid 15% less, the new cost would be 0.85x. Selling at Rs.50 more than the original selling price gives a new selling price of 0.8x + 50.

According to the condition, this new selling price yields a 30% profit on the reduced cost. So:

0.8x + 50 = 1.3 × 0.85x = 1.105x

Rearrange to solve for x:

50 = 1.105x − 0.8x = 0.305x ⇒ x = 50 / 0.305 ≈ 163.9344

Therefore the original cost price ≈ Rs.164.

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