The Thief's Story · Class 10 English · Footprints Without Feet: 60 flashcards
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1. Who wrote 'The Thief's Story'?
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Ruskin Bond.
2. Who does 'I' refer to in this story?
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The thief himself, who tells his own story; he is fifteen and is never given a real name.
3. What is the narrator 'a fairly successful hand' at?
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Stealing — he says he was already experienced at it although only fifteen.
4. Where and how does he first meet Anil?
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At a wrestling match, which he approaches him at because Anil looked easy-going, kind and simple enough for his purpose.
5. How old is Anil, and what does he look like?
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About twenty-five, tall and thin.
6. How does the boy open the conversation?
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With flattery — he tells Anil that he looks like a wrestler himself, and explains to us that a little flattery helps in making friends.
7. What name does he give, and is it his?
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Hari Singh — and no. He took a new name every month, which kept him ahead of the police and of former employers.
8. What does Anil say when the boy asks for work?
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That he cannot pay him.
9. How does the boy get himself hired anyway?
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He asks whether he can be fed instead, and claims that he can cook — which was a lie.
10. Where did Anil live, and where did the boy sleep?
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In a room above the Jumna Sweet Shop; the boy was told he could sleep on the balcony.
11. What happened to the first meal he cooked?
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It was so bad that Anil gave it to a stray dog and told him to leave — but the boy stayed, smiling, until Anil laughed.
12. What did Anil teach him?
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To cook, and to write his own name; he also promised to teach him whole sentences and how to add numbers.
13. Why was the boy grateful for the lessons at this stage?
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Because he believed that once he could write the way an educated man writes, there would be no end to what he could do — a better tool for the same trade.
14. How did the boy make money while working for Anil?
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By taking his time over the day's shopping and keeping about a rupee a day; he believed Anil knew and did not mind.
15. How did Anil earn his living?
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By writing for magazines — money came in fits and starts, so that he borrowed one week and lent the next, worried about his next cheque and celebrated as soon as it arrived.
16. What did Anil bring home one evening?
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A small bundle of notes, from the sale of a book to a publisher — which the boy saw him push under the mattress.
17. Why had the boy not robbed Anil in nearly a month?
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Not for want of opportunity — he had a key and could come and go. Anil was the most trusting person he had ever met, and that made robbing him difficult.
18. What is the boy's rule about robbing greedy and careless men?
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A greedy man is easy to rob because he can afford it; a careless man is hard, because he may not even notice, and that takes the pleasure out of the work.
19. What excuses does he make for taking the money?
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That it was time he did some real work, that he was out of practice, that Anil would only waste it on friends, and that Anil did not even pay him.
20. What does 'flattery' mean, in the chapter's glossary?
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Insincere praise.
21. What was Anil doing when the boy decided to act?
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Sleeping peacefully, with a beam of moonlight lying across the bed.
22. Which train did the boy plan to catch?
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The 10.30 Express to Lucknow.
23. How does the story describe Anil's sleeping face?
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Clear and unlined — that is, showing no sign of worry — while the boy says his own face had more marks, mostly scars.
24. How did the boy take the notes?
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He slid his hand under the mattress, found them and drew them out without a sound.
25. What startled him during the theft?
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Anil sighed in his sleep and turned on to his side, towards him — and the boy crawled quickly out of the room.
26. How did he carry the money away?
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At his waist, held there by the string of his pyjamas.
27. How much did he steal, and in what notes?
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600 rupees, in fifty-rupee notes.
28. What did he think the money would buy him?
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A week or two of living like an oil-rich Arab.
29. Why did he not stop at the ticket office?
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Because he had never bought a railway ticket in his life.
30. Why did he miss the Lucknow Express?
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Not because he was late — the train had still to pick up speed and he could have jumped in. He hesitated, for a reason he says he cannot explain, and lost the chance.
31. Why could he not simply take a hotel room near the station?
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He did not want to make anyone curious about him.
32. What had he always thought about friends?
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That they were more trouble than they were worth — so that night he had nobody to go to.
33. Who was the only person he knew really well?
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The man he had just robbed.
34. How do the greedy, the rich and the poor react when robbed, according to the boy?
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The greedy man shows fear, the rich man shows anger, and the poor man shows acceptance.
35. How does he expect Anil to react to the theft?
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With only a touch of sadness — and not for the loss of the money, but for the loss of trust.
36. What was the weather that night?
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It was early November and chilly; a light drizzle turned into heavy rain, and a cold wind blew it across his face while his clothes stuck to his skin.
37. Where did he shelter, and what time was it?
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By the clock tower in the bazaar; the clock showed midnight.
38. What had happened to the notes by then?
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They were damp from the rain — a detail that gives him away in the morning.
39. What three things did he realise he had lost by stealing?
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He could no longer cook Anil's meals, run to the bazaar for him, or learn to write whole sentences.
40. What finally makes him decide to go back?
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The realisation that whole sentences could one day bring him more than a few hundred rupees; stealing is simple and so is being caught, but becoming a big, clever, respected man is something else. He goes back, he says, if only to learn to read and write.
41. Why was the boy nervous on the way back?
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Because taking something, as he says himself, is far simpler than putting it back without anybody noticing.
42. What was the light like when he returned?
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Clouded moonlight — he stood in the doorway in it while Anil slept.
43. How close did he come to waking Anil?
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He felt Anil's breath on his hand and had to stay still for a minute before he could slip the notes under the edge of the mattress.
44. What had Anil done by the time the boy woke?
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He had already made the tea — the boy's own morning job.
45. What did Anil hold out to him?
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A fifty-rupee note, explaining that he had made some money the day before and that the boy would now be paid regularly.
46. Why did the boy's heart sink at first?
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He thought he had been discovered.
47. What did the boy notice about the note?
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It was still wet from the night's rain — proof that the money had been outside and had come back.
48. What did Anil say about the day's plan?
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That they would start writing sentences that day.
49. How does the boy know that Anil knew?
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From the wet note. Banknotes under a mattress do not get damp, and Anil had handled it before giving it to him.
50. How does Anil show what he knows?
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He does not. Neither his lips nor his eyes showed anything — there is no accusation, no lecture and no announced forgiveness.
51. How does the story end?
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The boy smiles at Anil in his most appealing way — but this time the smile comes by itself, without any effort.
52. Why is that final smile important?
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The same smile got him the job on the first evening, when it was pure calculation. Its coming without effort is how Ruskin Bond measures the change in him.
53. Why does Anil not hand the thief over to the police?
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Because he sees a fifteen-year-old who came back of his own accord, and judges that a regular wage and an education will do more for him than a charge sheet; the money is also back where it belongs.
54. Why does Anil say nothing about the theft?
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An accusation would have forced a denial or driven the boy away, and the lessons would have stopped. Silence lets him keep his self-respect, which is the only thing that can keep him there.
55. In what ways is Anil different from most employers?
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Most would have called the police. He answers a theft with a wage and a writing lesson, and never mentions it — treating the boy as someone who can still change rather than as a criminal to be dealt with.
56. Is it significant that Anil is a struggling writer?
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Yes. His own money comes in fits and starts, so he knows what being short of it feels like; and as a man who lives by words he knows exactly what he is giving when he offers to teach whole sentences. He is not a rich man being generous with spare change.
57. Where is the story set, and what language would the characters have spoken?
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In north India — the Jumna Sweet Shop, the maidan, the bazaar and the Lucknow train point that way. The characters would almost certainly have spoken Hindi or Urdu to each other; the English is the writer's medium.
58. What are the main themes of the story?
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Trust and its value; forgiveness offered silently; education as a way out of crime; and the possibility of change in someone everyone else would write off.
59. What does the story NOT tell us at the end?
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Whether the boy ever steals again, or whether he becomes the big, clever, respected man he imagined. Ruskin Bond gives a wage, a lesson and a smile, and stops there.
60. Who wrote the story, and what else appears beside it in the suggested reading?
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Ruskin Bond. The textbook suggests another of his stories alongside work by Anton Chekhov and Arthur Conan Doyle.
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