CBSE Class 10 English Chapter 2, The Thief’s Story: Important Questions with Answers, Download PDF

CBSE Class 10 English Chapter-wise important questions offer you sample questions that help you revise chapters in detail while also remembering the key details. Chapter 2, "The Thief's Story," examines the transformational potential of kindness and trust. The sensitive bond between the fifteen-year-old protagonist and his crude boss, Anil, is the central theme of this story by Ruskin Bond. It shares how a criminal's conscience can be changed by a straightforward act of instruction and sincere compassion, guiding him back toward the road of integrity and self-respect.

Students can find the questions that range from textual extracts to long type answers, offering students to define an overview of the story. By practicing these chapter based questions from textual extracts to long-type answers students will gain a better understanding of the details about the chapter which will help prepare them for board exam preparation.

Also check: CBSE Class 10 English Chapter 1, A Triumph Of Surgery

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CBSE Class 10 English Footprints Without Feet, The Thief’s Story: Important Questions

Students can check out English Literature questions for CBSE 2025-26 English paper from here. The questions are covere from all across the book Footprints without feet, offering students a clear and concise summary of each chapters and detailed practice. 

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ)

1. How has the narrator described Anil?

A) simple

B) kind

C) easy-going

D) all of the above

2. What did the boy ask Anil for?

A) to give him food

B) to employ him

C) to give him money

D) to teach him

3. How did Hari infer that the food was terrible?

A) Anil said he liked it

B) Anil couldn’t have enough of it

C) Anil was licking his fingers

D) Anil gave it to a stray dog

4. “a queer way to earn money”. What is the meaning of the word “queer”?

A) strange

B) famous

C) rare

D) illegal

Very Short Answer Type Questions

5. Why did Hari Singh not go to his friend’s house or a hotel just after he missed the train?

Answer: Hari Singh did not have any friends and he did not want to make anyone curious about staying at one of the small hotels near the station.

6. Why did Hari Singh not make many friends?

Answer: Hari Singh did not have friends as he believed that friends were more trouble than help. Moreover, he did not want to make anyone curious.

7.Why did Had Singh not go to his friend’s house or a hotel just after he missed the train?

Answer: Hari Singh did not have any friends and he did not want to make anyone curious about staying at one of the small hotels near the station.

8. Why did Anil agree to feed Hari Singh?

Answer: Anil needed a helping hand who could cook for him. When Hari Singh said that he could cook well, Anil agreed to feed him.

Short Answer Type Questions

9. Why did Hari Singh tell lies about cooking?

Answer: Hari Singh said that he could cook but when he cooked the meal at night, it was so terrible that Anil gave it to a stray dog and told him to be off. But then Anil patted him and said that he would teach him to cook.

10.What was the thief's reaction when he took Anil’s money?

Answer: As the thief got the money he quickly crawled out of the room. When he was on the road, he began to run. He had the notes at his waist, holding them by the string of his pajamas. Later on he slowed down to walk and counted the notes. He thought that with those 600 rupees he could lead a luxurious life like an oil-rich Arab at least for a week.

11.What does he get from Anil in return for his work?

Answer: When Hari asks Anil if he could work for him, Anil replies that he could not pay him. Finally, they reach an agreement that if he would cook, then Anil would feed him. However, Anil soon found out that he did not know how to cook. So, he taught him how to cook and later, how to write his name. He promised he would teach him how to write whole sentences and also how to add numbers. Apart from this, when Hari went out to buy the day’s supplies, he would make a profit of a rupee a day.

12.Why did Hari Singh choose Anil to be his next victim?

Answer: Hari Singh was an experienced thief. He found Anil, a wrestler, an easy-going, kind and simple man, the correct person for his purpose. He found him an easy target to win confidence.

Long Answer Type Questions

13. What kind of a life was Hari Singh leading with Anil?

Answer: Anil engaged Hari Singh as a house-servant. His duty was to cook food and prepare tea for Anil. He was not an expert in cooking. But Anil taught him how to cook food. He went to the market to buy vegetables and other things of daily necessity. For the thief, it was quite pleasant working for Anil. Anil had told him that he would teach him reading and writing. The thief was grateful to Anil for giving him a job and for his promise to make him an educated man. He knew that once he could write like an educated man then there would be no limit to what he could achieve.

14. ‘He was the most trusting person I had ever met.’ Justify this statement of Hari Singh about his benefactor, Anil. Did he breach Anil’s trust?

Answer: After his first introduction, Hari Singh understood Anil’s nature and his character rather well? He lied that he knew how to cook. Still, Anil allowed Hari to work for him. Even at the age of 15, Hari Singh was an experienced and successful hand. He knew all the tricks of his trade. He made one rupee every day from buying the day’s supplies. Anil knew it but didn’t mind. Anil was really a trusting person. He had given Hari a key to the door and he could come and go as he pleased. But it was `so difficult to rob him’. It is easy to rob a greedy man. It was difficult to rob a careless and trusting man like Anil. Sometimes, he didn’t even notice that he had been robbed. That took all the pleasure out of Hari Singh’s work. Anil was no fool. He knew all about the theft, when and how it was committed. Neither his lips nor eyes showed that he saw Hari placing the money back under the mattress.

Trust begets trust. Ultimately, the boy-thief realised that the only person who could help him was the man whom he had robbed a few hours ago. Naturally, Anil was the most trusting man Hari Singh had ever met in his life. And forgot the Tut Chase’s growth breach of his trust but rewarded Hari by giving a fifty-rupee-note and promising to pay him regularly.

15. Hari Singh could have lived like a rich Arab for a week or two. Why did he choose to go back to Anil in the end?

Answer: Hari Singh definitely had a bumper catch. The money he stole from under Anil’s bedroom’s mattress was perhaps the largest amount he had ever stolen in life. When he was on the road, he counted the money. It was a sum of rupees six hundred, in the fifties. With that money, Hari Singh could live in luxury like a rich Arab, at least for a week or two. He decided to run away with the money and came to the station. He found that the Lucknow Express had just moved. He could have jumped into one of the compartments but couldn’t do so. Perhaps something troubled him. He hesitated and remained standing alone on a deserted platform. He had no friends. The only man he knew was Anil whom he had robbed only a few hours ago.

The thing that motivated Hari Singh to go back to Anil was his love for getting an education. He realised that education could give him respect, status and much more money than he could get from stealing. Anil had promised him to teach writing and adding numbers. Han Singh’s urge to get an education brought him back to Anil.

CBSE Class 10 English The Thief’s Story: Important Questions with Answers, Download PDF

Shared here is a PDF that contains CBSE Class 10 English important questions from the FootPrints Without Feet, Chapter-2 The Thief’s Story. Download and save it for a quick revision to this chapter. 

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