How much the shopkeeper loses?

Question

I struck with this tricky math question

A girl went to a shop and bought a Rs.$200$ show piece. She gave a Rs.$1000$ note to shopkeeper. Shopkeeper didn't have any change so he went outside and took loan of Rs.$800$ from other shop and gave it to the girl. After sometime he realized that the Rs.$1000$ note was fake. So how much the shopkeeper loses?

Rs is Indian currency.

I think that the shopkeeper loses

the show piece price $200$ + he borrowed $800$ + fake note of $1000$ = Rs.$2000$

Am I right?

Answer 1

He would Lose $$$200 for the show piece because he was expecting to get 200 from it in revenue but now he would Take as a loss because he did not get the expected sale

$800 for the loan

Answer 2

He lost 1000 Rs relative to what he expected: the only difference between his expectations and reality is that the note turns out to be worth 0 Rs rather than 1000 Rs.

The difference between reality and expectations is almost surely what the puzzle intends. If you think the puzzle is about the difference between what he started with and what he finished with, then:

• He is down one show piece
• He is down one loan for 1000 Rs
• He is up one fake 1000 Rs note
• He is up 200 Rs

and possibly other things (e.g. he is up "ability to visually recognize a thief" which may have some value if he can get help from the police).

Simplistically assigning monetary value to each of these things also tallies to -1000 Rs, although reality may be somewhat different.

It may also help to reorganize your view on the problem. The girl and shopkeeper underwent two separate transactions:

• The shopkeeper gave 1000 Rs change for a fake 1000 Rs note
• The shopkeeper and the girl underwent an exchange of the show piece for 200 Rs.