This question illustrates what is known as discount interest. Imagine you are discussing a loan with a somewhat unscrupulous lender. You want to borrow $20,000 for one year. The interest rate is 15 percent. You and the lender agree that the interest on the loan will be 0.15 × $20,000 = $3,000. The lender deducts this interest amount from the loan up front and gives you $17,000. In this case, we say that the discount is $3,000. What’s wrong here?