Extremely slow opening play meant a 14,000 strong crowd had to wait until ten minutes for a chance when Keith Gillespie's long-range low drive was deflected wide of Steve Simonsen's right post.
However it was only five minutes later when Jordan Stewart's free-kick passed through a dozing defence for David Connolly to head down and Gareth Williams to stab home from six yards.
Stoke equalized nine minutes later when a perfectly worked corner saw Kevin Harper cut the ball back from the right for David Brammer to fire an unstoppable shot into Ian Walker's net from 25 yards.
The home side struck again on 34 minutes when Kevin Harper this time supplied Gifton Noel-Williams with a low cross that the striker cleanly slotted underneath Walker.
The addition of Mark De Vries livened up the Leicester attack, but the match was quickly turning into one that Craig Levein would want to forget.
First Gillespie hit the post on 57 minutes, followed by Connolly's open goal miss only six minutes later.
Harper completed a hat-trick of assists after 59 minutes when his right-sided corner swung in for Gerry Taggart to stoop and power a header into Walker's bottom right corner.
The Foxes grabbed a consolation goal three minutes from time, but it was one to be proud of when Joey Gudjonsson blasted his free-kick on the edge of the box into the roof of the net.
Leicester manager Craig Levein said: "I don't know how we lost, it was just bad defending basically.
"Going forward we played well, we just didn't put the ball in the net. Even at 3-1 down we still looked good.
"All credit to Stoke though, they took their chances when they arrived and we can learn from that."