To work out -5 + 3, Neel adds the digits and keeps the negative sign, getting -8

Why

Neel is treating the numbers the way you'd add two debts together — owe ₹5, then owe ₹3 more, and you'd owe ₹8 total, which is genuinely how adding two negatives works. The problem is +3 here isn't another debt, it's a PAYMENT — money coming in, moving you back toward zero, not further away from it. Picture a number line: start at -5, and adding a positive number means stepping to the RIGHT, toward zero, not further left. Step right 3 times from -5: -5, -4, -3, -2 — landing on -2. So -5 + 3 = -2, not -8. Think of it as a debt of ₹5 with a payment of ₹3 coming in — you'd still owe ₹2, not ₹8; the payment shrinks the debt, it doesn't add to it. Sana is right: adding a positive number to a negative one moves you toward zero, and the sign only stays negative if the positive number wasn't big enough to reach past it.