NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Footprints Without Feet Chapter 2 provide a clear and structured understanding of The Thief’s Story, helping students grasp both the storyline and its deeper moral values.
The chapter focuses on themes of trust, honesty, and transformation, showing how Anil’s kindness changes Hari Singh’s mindset. The Thief’s Story Class 10 Solutions explain character sketches, key incidents, and important messages in simple language, making them useful for answering short and long questions in exams.
Aligned with the CBSE Class 10 syllabus, these solutions are designed to support effective exam preparation.
They follow the latest CBSE class 10 exam pattern and help students develop analytical and value-based answers, which are often asked in board exams. By studying these NCERT solutions, students can improve comprehension, writing skills, and confidence while preparing thoroughly for the Class 10 English examination.
The Thief’s Story by Ruskin Bond Summary
The Thief’s Story is about a young, experienced thief named Hari Singh and his relationship with a kind and trusting man called Anil.
Hari meets Anil and cleverly gains his trust by offering to work for him. Anil gives Hari food, shelter, and teaches him to read and write, treating him with kindness despite knowing his flaws.
One night, Hari steals Anil’s money but soon feels guilty, realizing that Anil’s trust and education are more valuable than the stolen cash.
Overcome by remorse, he returns the money and decides to change his life. The story highlights the power of kindness, trust, and education in transforming a person and conveys the message that honesty brings lasting rewards.
The Thief's Story Question Answer
The Thief’s Story question answer section helps students understand key themes like trust, honesty, and transformation in the story. These questions focus on Hari Singh’s change of heart and Anil’s kindness.
Practising the thief's story class 10 solutions improves exam-ready understanding and writing skills. You must also prepare The Thief’s Story extra questions which will help students gain deeper insight into the characters, themes, and moral message while strengthening their exam preparation.
The Thief's Story Class 10 Questions and Answers
1. Who does ‘I’ refer to in this story?
In the story, ‘I’ refers to the narrator of the story Hari Singh, who was a fifteen-year-old thief.
2. What is he “a fairly successful hand” at?
He was skilled at robbing people.
3. What does he get from Anil in return for his work?
Anil was Hari's next target since he appeared naive and composed enough to be tricked. He offered to work for Anil, but Anil said he didn't have enough money to pay him and that he would take care of him and feed him instead.
He also taught him how to cook, write his name, do simple maths, and other skills while he was living with him. When he went to buy supplies for Anil, he made a profit of one rupee because Anil had not paid him.
4. How does the thief think Anil will react to the theft?
During his time with Anil, the thief became closer. He was aware that Anil trusted him, so when he found out he had been robbed, his sadness would come from having been betrayed by someone he trusted rather than from losing money.
5. What does he say about the different reactions of people when they are robbed?
Even though the speaker was just fifteen when he first met Anil, he had already committed a good number of robberies. He watched how each person responded to being robbed. The wealthy expressed anger and anxiety, while the impoverished accepted their fate of losing.
6. Does Anil realize that he has been robbed?
Yes, Anil was aware that Hari had defrauded him. The money he kept under was damp because it had been raining that day. He believed that Hari would have likely taken off with the money but held it back out of guilt. He was pleased with himself for realising his error and keeping quiet.
Think About It
1. What are Hari Singh’s reactions to the prospect of receiving an education? Do they change over time? (Hint: compare, for example, the thought: “I knew that once I could write like an educated man there would be no limit to what I could achieve” with these later thoughts: ‘Whole sentences, I knew, could one day bring me more than a few hundred rupees. It was a simple matter to steal − and sometimes just as simple to be caught. But to be a really big man, a clever and respected man, was something else.”) What makes him return to Anil?
Over time, Hari's opinions on education and the suggestion that she get one did evolve. He first desired education because he believed that knowledge would make him more crafty and make it simpler for him to steal and deceive. However, his opinions did evolve.
He was more eager to learn to improve his income through lawful means. He won't have to run all the time to keep himself safe. Anil was the one who had a lasting impact on him because of his composure and consideration. Feeling guilty for betraying the one who trusted him, Hari went back to Anil. He didn't feel bad about stealing from anyone, but he felt bad about cheating on him.
2. Why does not Anil hand the thief over to the police? Do you think most people would have done so? In what ways is Anil different from such employers?
Anil realized that Hari had embezzled money from him. However, he trusted him and cared about him, so he refrained from turning him over to the police.
Out of pure guilt, he held the money back in the location he kept, and Anil liked that aspect about him. I don't think anyone would have done that in the modern world. Since he was a thief, they would have given him over to the police because it would be pointless to trust him, and there's a chance he would steal from the house again.
Talk About It
1. Do you think people like Anil and Hari Singh are found only in fiction, or are there such people in real life?
No, I don't believe that these kinds of characters are limited to fiction. Since they have no one to support them, some young children turn to theft to survive. People often struggle financially, and for aspiring authors, not having a steady source of income is a common occurrence.
It is rare to come across someone as generous as Anil, who refused to give the youngster he had just met his belongings and attempted to steal what little he had left to survive. He behaved maturely and was a kind and thoughtful person. Hari was forever changed by his kindness.
2. Do you think it is a significant detail in the story that Anil is a struggling writer? Does this explain his behavior in any way?
At roughly twenty-five, Anil was approached by the speaker. He had a modest, pleasant, and laid-back appearance. He learned that the speaker was a poor writer with inconsistent income during their association. He was an easygoing, carefree man who relished life. In addition to being an honest person, he went out to eat with pals. He informed the speaker in advance that he would not be able to pay him when he accepted the job offer. While he was worried about the next payment most of the time, he occasionally received enough to get by.
3. Have you met anyone like Hari Singh? Can you think and imagine the circumstances that can turn a fifteen-year-old boy into a thief?
No, I haven't encountered somebody akin to Hari Singh. People turn to theft as a means of subsistence as a result of growing capitalism and the impoverished being unable to make ends meet with their daily salaries.
Even though it is against the law to rob someone, it is the simplest method for underprivileged children like Hari to survive and feed their stomachs because they have no one else to rely on for support.
They are forced to do it by the circumstances they find themselves in rather than doing it out of pure desire or interest. They shouldn't be given jobs that would allow them to support themselves rather than being pushed to live like way their entire lives.
4. Where is the story set? (You can get clues from the names of the persons and places mentioned in it.) Which language or languages are spoken in these places? Do you think the characters in the story spoke to each other in English?
Since there is mention of stalls and bazaars featuring sweet shops, it seems that the story takes place in Uttar Pradesh. Hari also talks about leaving from the local railway station, catching a train, and getting off at Lucknow station.
All of these points suggest that it could be a small Uttar Pradeshi town. No, I don't believe the characters used English when speaking. Since Hindi is the language spoken by the majority of people in Uttar Pradesh, I believe they would have spoken Hindi instead of English.
