The Thief’s Story — study notes

Read the story itself in your textbook, Footprints without Feet (NCERT supplementary reader). This lesson is SOYL's explanation and analysis; it does not reproduce the text.

Ruskin Bond (born 1934) is an Indian writer in English, known for gentle, observant stories of ordinary people in the small towns and hills of north India. This story is told in the first person by the thief himself, so we follow his plans and his change of heart from the inside.

The target. A young, practised thief, calling himself Hari Singh, flatters Anil, a young writer, at a wrestling match and asks for work. Anil offers food instead of wages if Hari will cook; Hari falsely says he can.

Lessons. Hari’s first meal goes to a stray dog, but Anil teaches him to cook, to write his name, and promises sentences and sums. Hari still keeps a little of the shopping money.

The theft. Anil sells a book and puts the money under his mattress. At night Hari takes it and goes to the station to catch a train to Lucknow, but he does not board.

The return. In the rain he thinks of Anil’s sadness at broken trust and of the future education could give him. He returns the damp notes.

The ending. Next morning Anil gives him a fifty-rupee note, still damp, and promises regular pay. Hari realises Anil knows. Anil only says they will start writing sentences, and Hari smiles.

• Trust transforms: Anil’s faith makes betrayal unbearable.
• Education as a way up: writing his name shows Hari a future.
• Conscience: Hari cannot board the train.
• Forgiveness without words: the damp note and the silence.
• Kindness over punishment: Anil teaches instead of reporting.
• People above money: Anil cares little for wealth.

Message: trust, kindness and education can reform a wrongdoer more surely than punishment.

At the start: changes his name, flatters, lies about cooking, skims the shopping money, sees Anil as a target.

The conflict: the thief sees an easy chance; the learner values Anil’s trust and wants an educated future. The struggle peaks on the platform and in the rain.

At the end: returns the money, chooses learning, smiles openly at the man he wronged.

Generous (feeds a stranger). Patient (teaches after a bad first meal). Careless with money (irregular income; notes under a mattress). Trusting (lets Hari handle money). Forgiving (silent about the theft; pays him; starts the next lesson). His silence is a deliberate kindness, not ignorance.

• First person: the thief’s own voice.
• Understatement: few words for big feelings.
• A telling detail: the damp note reveals the truth.
• Silent, open ending: forgiveness shown, not spoken.
• Irony: the robbed man pays the robber.

SOYL practice sentence (not from the story): Mother said nothing about the broken vase, but the next day a tube of glue sat on my desk (a detail that shows she knew).

Key words for discussing the story: conscience, remorse, reform, betray, flatter, irregular, redemption, transformation. Use them in your own sentences, for example: Anil’s trust awakened Hari’s conscience.

How this reader is examined: the board sets 3-mark short answers (40–50 words; two of three) and a 6-mark long answer (100–120 words) on Footprints without Feet. It does not print extracts from this reader; SOYL’s commentary items are comprehension practice only.

Short answers (3 marks): point + evidence + explanation.

Long answers (6 marks): a clear stand; three points with evidence in your own words; a link to a value or theme; a one-line conclusion. Extrapolation tasks (Anil’s diary, a letter from Hari years later, an assembly speech) must stay consistent with the story.

Re-read the story in Footprints without Feet before a test.