Raja Ram is a farmer learning to run a general store in a village in West Nepal. He had not been to school, but had learned some math from family and friends. He was now learning practical techniques from a local shopkeeper for measuring, calculating prices, counting out change and determining profit and loss.
When a customer entered, Raja Ram, using his head and fingers, rapidly totalled the order for two metres of cloth at 23 rupees and 50 paisa, and four containers of tobacco at 2 rupees and 25 paisa each. "…so 2 and 4 and 8 rupees and 4 suka are 1 rupee, so 9 rupees for the tobacco and 23 rupees and 9 rupees is 23 and 10 and 33 less one is 32 rupees and 50 paisa." Money changed hands and before long the customer was out of the shop.
Yan Bahadur is a tenth class student who is also learning to run a general store. Using pencil and paper and taking about 20 minutes time, he figured the price of a customer's cloth order in the following way. "You need one metre and 55 centimeters of cloth and the cloth is 14 rupees a metre, so…100 divided by 14 is the same as 155 divided by what? …100 divided by 14 is 7.1429 and, 7.1429 into 155 equals 21.699 rupees."
Though Yan Bahadur's answer was correct, the shopkeeper was unimpressed. He told Yan Bahadur, "Your methods are fine for school tests, but you took too much time. And what good is 21 point 699, or whatever, rupees! Look, 1 metre is 14 rupees and half a metre is 7 rupees, so 21 rupees and 1 centimetre is 14 paisa and therefore 5 centimetres is 70 paisa, so it is 21 rupees and 70 paisa for the cloth."