The Thief's Story · Class 10 English · Footprints Without Feet: 135 MCQs with answers

The thief himself, telling his own story

He is fifteen years old, and the story never gives us his real name.

Stealing

He says he was already experienced at it although he was only fifteen.

That he could not pay him

The boy then asked whether he could be fed instead.

In a room above the Jumna Sweet Shop

The boy was told he could sleep on the balcony.

To cook, and to write his own name

He also promised whole sentences and addition later on.

By writing for magazines

The boy considered it a strange way to make a living.

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The 10.30 Express to Lucknow

He worked it out while sitting on the floor, before he touched the money.

600 rupees in fifties

Anil had sold a book to a publisher the day before.

Alone on a deserted platform with nowhere to spend the night

He had neither friends nor a place to go.

A chilly November night, with drizzle turning to heavy rain

His shirt and pyjamas stuck to his skin and a cold wind blew the rain across his face.

Damp from the rain

The detail returns in the morning, in Anil's hand.

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Clouded

Earlier a clear beam had fallen across the bed; the weather has changed since.

Made the tea

Making the morning tea was the boy's own job — a small reversal of roles.

A fifty-rupee note

He explained that he had made some money the day before.

It was still wet from the night's rain

Money kept under a mattress does not become damp.

That they would start writing sentences

It is exactly what the boy had come back through the rain for.

Anil looked easy-going, kind and simple enough for his purpose

He had been doing badly lately and thought he could get into the young man's confidence.

The boy flatters Anil by saying he looks like a wrestler

He explains the tactic to us at once: a little flattery helps in making friends.

It is false; he took a new name every month

The changes kept him ahead of the police and of the people he had worked for before.

To stay ahead of the police and of former employers

It is a working precaution, described as matter-of-factly as the rest of his trade.

By offering to work for food, and claiming he could cook

The claim about cooking was his third lie in as many minutes.

Anil gave it to a stray dog and told him to leave

The boy simply stayed where he was, smiling, until Anil could not help laughing.

About a rupee a day

He believed Anil knew about it and did not seem to mind.

It came in fits and starts

He borrowed one week and lent the next, and celebrated as soon as a cheque arrived.

A bundle of notes from the sale of a book

The boy watched him push the money under the mattress.

A greedy man, because he can afford to be robbed

The careless man is the difficult one — he may not notice, and that spoils the pleasure of the work.

That Anil had cheated him out of his wages

Anil had said from the start that he could not pay, and the boy had agreed to work for food.

1 and 2 only

Anil said at the outset that he could not pay, and the arrangement was food instead.

He borrows one week and lends the next, and worries about his next cheque

His money arrives in fits and starts, as a freelance writer's does.

That is the name he gave Anil; he admits he lied and changed names monthly

Anil is named throughout; the narrator never is.

Flattery — insincere praise

Modestly means without boasting, appealing means attractive, and grunting is a low guttural sound.

A fifteen-year-old professional picks his victim by eye and gets a teacher instead

A good opening puts the calculation and the unexpected gift in one line.

He had gone almost a month without stealing anything

Apart from the shopping money he had done nothing in his own line of work.

He kept a boy he had just sacked, and then taught him to cook and to write

None of it was owed: he had said from the beginning that he could not pay.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include at least six of: the boy's age and trade; Anil's age and appearance; the wrestling match and why Anil was chosen; the flattery; the false name and its monthly change; Anil saying he could not pay; the request for food and the lie about cooking; the room over…

Clear and unlined, showing no sign of worry

The boy notes that his own face carried more marks, and that his were mostly scars.

Anil sighed and turned towards him in his sleep

He crawled quickly out of the room, but the notes were already in his hand.

At his waist, held by the string of his pyjamas

He ran on the road before slowing down to count.

Live like an oil-rich Arab for a week or two

Even in his excitement, the boy knows exactly how briefly it will last.

He had never bought a ticket in his life

One line that tells us exactly how he has been living.

He did not want to make anybody curious about him

A boy with six hundred rupees would have been remembered.

That they were more trouble than they were worth

Which is why, on that night, he had nobody at all to go to.

He shows fear

Anger belongs to the rich man and acceptance to the poor one.

With acceptance

He has seen too many losses to expect anything else.

By the clock tower in the bazaar; it showed midnight

He had first sat on a bench in the maidan until the rain drove him back.

Two or three rupees to go to the cinema

The boy sets that small kindness against the six hundred he has taken.

Cook Anil's meals, run to the bazaar, and learn to write whole sentences

The third loss is the one that turns him round.

More, one day, than a few hundred rupees

It is a comparison of returns, and the money loses.

2 and 3 only

Anil never woke; the boy left of his own accord after Anil turned in his sleep.

Nobody caught him; he lost his chance to escape by hesitating

The theft is never discovered by anyone but Anil himself, and nothing is said aloud.

With the train moving and the money at his waist, the boy stops — and cannot say why

A good opening puts the escape and the unexplained refusal in the same line.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should follow the sequence and include at least seven of: the moonlight and the plan to catch the 10.30 Express to Lucknow; the two faces; the silent removal of the notes; Anil turning in his sleep; the run with the notes at his waist; 600 rupees in fifties and the oil-ric…

Because returning something undetected is harder than stealing it

He had felt nothing of the kind on the way out.

He felt Anil's breath on his hand and had to stay still

Then his hand found the edge of the mattress and slipped underneath with the notes.

That he had made money, and the boy would now be paid regularly

Not one word about the theft is spoken in the whole scene.

He thought he had been discovered

His spirits rose again when Anil mentioned regular pay — and then he looked at the note.

That Anil knew, although neither his lips nor his eyes showed it

Two words, and they carry the whole ending.

He answers a theft with a wage and a lesson instead of a punishment

Most people, as the textbook question implies, would have called the police.

2 and 3 only

Neither of them ever mentions the theft aloud.

North India — the Jumna Sweet Shop, the maidan, and a train to Lucknow

The textbook asks which language the characters would really have used with each other.

That trust can be worth more than the money it risks

The boy himself had said the real loss would be of trust, not money.

As the payment that outweighs the theft and brings the boy back

The last line of dialogue in the story is a lesson beginning.

Anil says nothing about the theft at all; the forgiveness is entirely silent

Neither his lips nor his eyes showed anything.

A wet fifty-rupee note says everything that neither of them is willing to say

A strong opening names the evidence and the silence together.

'Today we'll start writing sentences'

It is the story's last line of dialogue, and it answers the theft with a lesson.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include at least six of: the nervousness and the line about returning being harder than stealing; the clouded moonlight and the sleeping Anil; the breath on his hand and the notes going back under the mattress; Anil having made the tea; the fifty-rupee note and the…

Anil returned the compliment, and the boy was rather thin at the time

The flattery is professional, and being flattered back is not part of the plan.

That the appealing smile is a tool he uses deliberately

The same smile returns at the very end of the story — but it works differently there.

He believed an educated man could achieve anything he wanted

At this point, literacy is simply a sharper instrument for the same trade.

That he is careless about money and unwilling to make a scene

It is the first evidence of the carelessness that the boy will later say makes him hard to rob.

Because Anil's trust made the theft difficult, not because he lacked the chance

He had a key of his own and could come and go as he pleased.

It takes away the satisfaction he gets from his work

He treats stealing as a craft, and a craftsman wants his work to register.

A is true, but R is false

This is his first theft from Anil. The assertion about his self-argument holds; the reason is false.

We are told the truth about the lies, and so we notice when he changes

He confesses the false name, the false cooking and the shopping money without any prompting.

He measures every occupation by how reliably it pays

'A queer way to make a living' is a thief's verdict on an uncertain income.

It proves the theft was made possible by trust, not by carelessness with locks

He could come and go as he pleased for a whole month before he took anything.

It builds the debt of kindness that the theft will betray

Food, shelter, cooking and letters are all given before a single rupee is taken.

He regards it as a trade with its own skills and standards

He speaks of being out of practice and of the pleasure of a job well done.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include: the key to the door; the notes under the mattress; the tolerated rupee a day; a month of opportunity with nothing taken; the rule about greedy and careless men; Anil as the most trusting person he had met; the four excuses as evidence of discomfort; and a c…

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should identify techniques with evidence: the first-person confession of the false name, the false cooking and the shopping money; humour at his own expense (the returned compliment, the verdict on magazine writing); the professional vocabulary of the trade; his gratitude…

The thief has lived a harder life than the man he is robbing

At twenty-five Anil is untroubled; at fifteen the boy is already scarred.

He hesitated for a reason he cannot explain and lost his chance

The train had still to pick up speed, so jumping in would have been easy.

The change in him is happening before he can understand it himself

He spends the rest of the night working out what has happened to him.

The only person he knew really well was the man he had robbed

Six hundred rupees have bought him complete loneliness.

A touch of sadness, for the loss of trust rather than of money

Anil fits none of the three categories the boy has learned.

It shows he already understands what he has really taken

He names the loss of trust himself, hours before he acts on it.

He had forgotten about the lessons in the excitement of stealing

Remembering them at the clock tower undoes the whole plan.

Stealing is simple, and sometimes being caught is just as simple

Being a big, clever, respected man is the thing that is not simple.

A is true, but R is not the reason the story gives

He says he should go back if only to learn to read and write — the reason he gives is the education.

It makes clear that the only force acting on him is his own conscience

No pursuit, no locked door, nobody who even notices — and he still turns back.

It soaks the notes, and the wet money later gives him away

In the morning Anil hands him a fifty-rupee note that is still wet.

He weighs sentences against a few hundred rupees

His conscience arrives in the language of profit and loss, which is the only language he has.

He thinks of stealing as a profession with lessons to be learned

The study of victims' faces is exactly the sort of thing a professional would collect.

It shows he values that trust even while destroying it

He can predict the sadness exactly, which means he already understands what it is worth.

It traces a circle that brings him back towards the room he fled

Each stop takes him further from the train and nearer to the decision to return.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include: the removal of every external obstacle (Anil asleep, silent theft, no pursuit, no ticket needed, slow train); the unexplained hesitation and why the refusal to explain matters; the loneliness of the platform; the study of faces and the naming of the loss of…

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include: the early view of education as a means to achieve anything; the lessons being forgotten in the excitement of the theft; their return at the clock tower; the new comparison of whole sentences with a few hundred rupees; the admission that stealing and being c…

That the money had been out in the rain and had come back

And Anil handled it before handing it over, so he must have felt it.

The first was a deliberate tactic; the last came by itself, without effort

Ruskin Bond measures the entire change in the boy with that one clause.

Because an accusation would have forced a denial and ended the lessons

Silence lets the boy keep the self-respect that keeps him in the room.

He judges that a wage and an education will do more than a charge sheet

And the money is back where it belongs, so nothing has finally been lost.

His own money comes in fits and starts, and words are the only wealth he has to give

He is not a rich man being generous with small change.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

A denial or a flight would have ended the lessons, which are the boy's only way out.

Whether the boy ever steals again

Bond gives us a wage, a lesson and a smile, and refuses to promise more.

That the characters would have spoken Hindi or Urdu, and the English is the writer's medium

Writing Indian speech in English is an ordinary convention of Indian writing in English.

Two people share a secret, and neither of them says it

The power of the last paragraph lies entirely in what is not spoken.

The wage arrives the morning after the boy stole the same money

And the very note handed over has been through the rain in the boy's pyjama string.

Because speaking would break the arrangement Anil has silently offered

The offer only works as long as neither of them names it.

He has seen that an unpaid servant with a key is being tempted daily

The boy's own excuses had included the fact that Anil did not pay him.

The smile at the end comes without any effort

The identical smile was pure calculation on the first evening.

The boy's self-respect, and with it any chance of his staying

He would have denied it or run, and the lessons would have ended.

Everything that matters happens between two people, with no third party to judge them

No police, no family, no neighbours — only an employer, a servant and what passes between them.

Details planted earlier — the smile, the rain, the trust — all return in the last paragraph

Nothing in the ending is new; everything in it has been set up.

That a second chance offered without humiliation can still reach them

Anil offers the chance without ever making the boy admit anything.

It keeps the change inside the boy, where the whole story has been

The narrator has been the subject throughout; the last line measures what has happened to him.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include: the money already being back; the boy's free choice to return; the judgement that most people would have called the police; at least three ways Anil differs (addressing the cause with a wage; offering an education and a future; refusing to humiliate or accu…

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should trace the development: education as payment in place of wages; the boy's early practical view of literacy; the lessons forgotten during the theft; the comparison at the clock tower between whole sentences and a few hundred rupees; the admission that stealing and bei…