NCERT Solution for Class 10 English : Footprints Without Feet – Chapter 2 The Thief’s Story

NCERT solution is a great help to students. Students can check the understanding of the chapter by solving NCERT solution.

Read and Find Out

Question.1. Who is ‘I’ in this story?
Answer. I refers to Hari Singh, the narrator of the story who is a 15 year old experienced thief.

Question.2. What is he ‘a fairly successful hand’ at?
Answer. He is ‘a fairly successful hand’ at stealing things (because he is a thief).

Question.3. What does he get from Anil in return for his work?
Answer. He gets from Anil in return for his work, a place and food. It is for sleeping and food to eat.

Question.4. How does the thief think Anil will react to the theft?
Answer. The thief thinks that Anil would be sad when he would discover the theft.

Question.5. What does he say about different reactions of people when they are robbed?
Answer. He says that a greedy man shows fear. A rich man shows anger. A poor man shows acceptance. There are different reactions of people when they are robbed.

Question.6. Does Anil realise that he has been robbed?
Answer. Yes, Anil realised that he had been robbed, as he gave a fifty rupee note to Hari which was still damp due to the night’s rain.

Thinking About It

Question.1. What are Hari Singh’s reactions to the prospects 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?
Answer. Anil was teaching Hari Singh to write sentences. Hari singh’s reactions changed time to time. First, he thought if he learned to write like an educated man, he could steal more cleverly. But later he thought that to steel was a simple matter. But to be a really good man is something different. At this thought he decided to return to Anil. His conscience did not allow him to betray Anil’s trust.

Question.2. Why does Anil not 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?
Answer. Anil had come to know that Hari Singh had stolen his money. He had known that Hari Singh was a thief. But Anil did not handover him to the police because Hari Singh had been reformed and he kept the money back from where he had taken it.

If there was some other employer in place of Anil, he would have handed over Hari singh to the police. Anil was different from such employers as he understood that a social evil like theft cannot be cured by police. Anil’s way of treating him was the only way to reform him.

Talk About It

Question.1. Do you think people like Anil and Hari Singh are found only in fiction, or are there such people in real life?
Answer. Normally, people like Anil and Hari Singh are not found in real life. No one has a sense of forgiveness like Anil and no one really gets reformed like Hari Singh in real life. It happens more in fictions than in real life.

Question.2. Do you think it a significant detail in the story that Anil is a struggling writer? Does this explain his behaviour in any way?
Answer. Yes, it is a significant detail that Anil is a struggling writer. He is an intellectual man. He writes for newspapers and magazines. He lives a life of struggle for survival. He forgives the thief, Hari Singh, which shows his ideology of reformation of social evils. He has an understanding of Hari Singh’s behaviour. He treats him psychologically and reforms in the end. Thus, he behaves like a thinker and an idealist.

Question.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 ?
Answer. We find many Hari Singh’s in our society. We can see many delinquent adolescents who fall in wrong company and commit crimes. Actually, adolescents like Hari Singh are misguided and are product of social ill treatment. We can imagine the situation which led Hari Singh to the path of crime. He had no formal schooling. So, in such circumstances it can be easily imagined that adolescents like Hari Singh are prone to fall prey to habits like stealing and other crimes.

Question.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?
Answer. The story is set in North India. We find the mention of Lucknow Express. The names, Hari Singh and Anil indicate that story is set in a Hindi spoken area of North India. The wrestling match is another indication of this possibility usually, Hindi is spoken in these places. I think the characters of the story did not speak to each other in English.