While I understand this question, I think it is a bit of a trick. I think it would make more sense to ask them to convert 1.25% to a decimal, or any percentage that did not have leading zeros.
I think it is important for one to be able to follow instructions even if they might appear counterintuitive. The rule for conversion is to divide by 100. It doesn't matter what percentage I give you; always divide by 100. It's fairly straightforward but many people are unable to do so in the case of 0.25%. They expect the answer to be 25.