The Thief Story Notes For XB
The Thief Story Notes For XB
The Thief Story Notes For XB
Key Points
Chapter 02
The Thief’s Story
1. A small-time 15 year old thief, who calls himself Hari Singh, befriends a
struggling author, Anil. Hari’s purpose is to steal Anil’s money.
2. Anil is a good fellow who wants to teach Hari Singh how to read and
write.
3. Gradually, Anil develops trust in Hari Singh. But Hari Singh has been waiting for the
right moment to make a killing by doing what he is best at, i.e. stealing.
4. After stealing the money which Anil had earned by selling a book to a publisher, Hari
Singh tries to run away forever.
5. But some inner voice stops him from doing so. He returns to Anil because he
realizes that he wants to live a life of respect.
6. Anil does not show that he knew about the theft and accepts Hari Singh with
open arms.
7. Thus, a well intentioned person tries to reform a teenager who had strayed from
the correct path
Q4 : How does the thief think Anil will react to the theft?
Answer : The thief thought that on discovering the theft, Anil's face would show a
touch of sadness. The sadness would not be for the loss of money, but for the
loss of trust.
Q5 : What does he say about the different reactions of people when they are
robbed?
Answer : In his short career as a thief, he had made a study of men's faces when
they lost their goods. He said that the greedy men showed fear; the rich men
showed anger and the poor men showed acceptance.
Q2 : 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?
Answer : Anil does not hand over the thief to the police because he realized that
Hari had learnt his lesson and had changed for the better. Otherwise, he would
never have come back and kept the money at the same place from where he had
stolen it. Anil even knew how Hari cheated him of a rupee a day while buying the
day's supplies. But he never said anything to him. This is such a case where most
people would have handed him over to the police. Anil was different from such
employers because he was a modest and trusting man. He had offered to teach
Hari how to cook and also to educate him. When he found out that Hari had stolen
the money, but had kept it back, he knew that it was Hari's conscience that had
made him do so. Hari could have easily run off with the money, but he did not.
This made Anil give him another chance and build him into a better person that he
could already see him becoming.