A Question of Trust Extra Questions and Answers Class 10 English Footprints Without Feet

July 20, 2020 by Prasanna

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A Question of Trust Extra Questions and Answers Class 10 English Footprints Without Feet

A Question of Trust Extra Questions and Answers Short Answer Type

Question 1.

What did Horace Danby hear from the doorway?

Answer:

Horace Danby heard a voice from the doorway. It was the voice of a lady. As Horace Danby has
sneezed loudly, therefore the lady asked what it was and he replied that it was due to hay fever.

Question 2.

How did the lady in red convince Horace Danby to open the lock?

Answer:

The lady told Horace Danby that she had promised her husband to take her jewels to the hank but
she left them in the safe. She had forgotten the numbers to open the safe and wanted to wear the
jewels to a party. Horace Danby believed her and opened the safe for her.

Question 3.

Was Horace Danby a typical thief?

Answer:

Horace Danby was not a typical thief. He made locks and was successful in his business. He loved
rare and expensive books. To purchase these books he used to rob only one safe every year.

Question 4.

What advice did the lady give Horace Danby about his. hay fever?

Answer:
The lady advised him that he could cure his hay fever with a special treatment, if he could find out
just. what plant gave him the disease. She said sympathetically that he had better see a doctor if he
was serious about his work.

Question 5.

Why did Horace Danby feel sure of his success in that year’s robbery?

Answer:

Horace Danby felt sure of his success in that year’s robbery as he had been studying room, paths and
gardens of the house at Shot over Grange for two weeks. He knew that the family was in London and
two servants who lived in the house had gone to watch a movie that afternoon.

Question 6.

Did Horace Danby get the jewels from the Grange safe? Then why did the Police arrest him?

Answer:

Horace Danby did not get the jewels from the Grange safe but he was arrested by the police as his
fingerprints were traced on the lighter which he gave to the lady to light the cigarette. He was eager
to please the lady to win her favour.

Question 7.

What story did the lady tell Horace Danby to get the jewels?

Answer:

The lady made up a story that before going to London, she promised her husband to take her jewels
to their bank, but she left them there in the safe. She wished to put on the jewels to a party that
night. Above all she had forgotten the numbers to open the safe. Thus she convinced Horace Danby
to open the safe.

Question 8.

Why was it not difficult for Horace to open the safe?

Answer:

It was not difficult for Horace Danby to open the safe because he had lived with locks and safes all
his life. The burglar alarm was poorly built. He cut the wire without any difficulty.
Question 9.

What does the author tell us about Horace Danby’s life?

Answer:

Horace Danby was unmarried and fifty year old and lived with a housekeeper who bothered about
his health. He had hay fever. He made locks and was successful in his business. He was good and
respectable but not honest.

Question 10.

How often did Horace Danby commit a robbery every year? What did he do with the stolen money?

Answer:

Horace Danby committed only one robbery every year. He was fond of collecting rare and expensive
books. He used to buy these books with stolen money through an agent secretly.

Question 11.

What does Horace Danby like to collect?

Answer:

Horace Danby likes to collect rare and expensive books.

Question 12.

Why does he steal every year?

Answer:

He used to steal every year so that he could buy the rare and expensive books that he loved to
collect. He planned meticulously before attempting a burglary, stole enough to last twelve months
and secretly bought the books through an agent.

Question 13.

Who is speaking to Horace Danby?

Answer:

A lady standing in the doorways is speaking to Horace Danby. She is young and pretty, and is dressed
in red. She said she had come just in time, or else her family would have been robbed by Horace.
She, thus, pretended to be one of the members of the family living at Shotover Grange.
Question 14.

Who is the real culprit in the story?

Answer:

The real culprit is the woman who pretended to be a member of the family living at Shotover
Grange. She tricked Horace into believing her, and cleverly took away all the jewels that were kept in
the safe.

A Question of Trust Extra Questions and Answers Long Answer Type

Question 1.

What do you think is the meaning of the phrase ‘honour among thieves’? Which of the two thieves
lack the honour?

OR

Which of the two thieves lacked ‘honour’ in the story ‘A Question of Trust’?

Answer:

“There is honour among Thieves” means that ‘dishonest people may have certain standards of
behaviour which they will respect’. The young lady pretended to be the owner of the house and
innocently asked Horace Danby to-open the safe as she would need the jewels to wear to the party
that day. Horace Danby found himself trapped in a tricky situation and could not make out how to
escape. He readily opened the safe unwittingly leaving his fingerprints. He was arrested and nobody
believed that the lady of the house asked him to open the safe.

Question 2.

At times we keep on planning things but our plans fail, we are not always responsible for the failure.
Explain with reference to the story ‘A Question of Trust’.

OR

In the story ‘A Questions of Trust’, Horace Danby carefully planned his theft, but was outwitted by
another thief‘The lady in red’. Would you agree that over confidence may prove fatal one day?
Discuss.

Answer:

It is true that we keep on planning things in our life. We wish thing would materialise as we had
planned but Man proposes God disposes. Horace Danby was a very careful planner. He made all
plans very carefully before the robbery. He drew picture of wirihg of electricity and even took every
efforts of befriending pets. But fate had planned something different. Lady in red turned out to be
smarter and duped him. Horace, without any suspicion, opened the safe without gloves. This
mistake landed him in prison. So one lesson that we learn that we should not trust anyone.

Question 3.
“Lying and stealing are next door neighbours”. Comment.

Answer:

A path of truthfulness and honesty is always better than an easy path of deceit. Horace Danby was a
thief, he robbed safe every year. But, in the end he was be fooled by another thief and was arrested
by the police. Stealing or lying cannot bring happiness or success. A truthful and honest person
always leads a happy and peaceful life. He does not have to live with any kind of guilt. Stealing or
lying robs one of peace. Those who are honest do not live a life of tension and are able to get peace
of mind too.

Question 4.

Our sins never go unpunished. Horace Danby ultimately had to go to prison. This shows that inspite
of planning a crime intelligently and carefully a criminal can’t escape the law— Explain / discuss.

Answer:

A path of truthfulness and honesty is always better than an easy path of deceit. Horace Danby was a
thief, he robbed safe every year. But, in the end he was befooled by another thief and was arrested
by the police. Stealing or lying cannot bring happiness or success. A truthful and honest person
always leads a happy and peaceful life. He does not have to live with any kind of guilt. Stealing or
lying robs one of peace. Those who are honest do not live a life of tension and are able to get peace
of mind too.

Question 5.

“Horace Danby was clever but the young woman was cleverer”. Discuss.

OR

How did the lady in red turn out to be smarter than Horace Danby?

Answer:

Horace Danby was a cleaver thief. He lived a life of a respectable and successful businessman. He
used to make locks. He was fond of rare and expensive books. He did not have enough money to buy
these books. He used to rob a safe for this once in an year. He was very clever. He made his plan in
such a way that he was never caught. He spent a lot of time in planning his mission. He never left any
sign of theft but the lady who was another thief proved herself cleverer than Danby. She was a great
actress as well.

She pretended to be the owner of the house. She tricked Danby who opened the safe for her and ‘
handed over the jewels. Horace was so nervous that he did not realise that he had no gloves in his
hand. The lady had no tools, no gloves but managed to rob the safe without leaving any evidence
against her. Thus, we can say that the lady was cleverer than Danby.

Question 6.
Did you begin to suspect, before the end of the story, that the lady was not the person Horace
Danby took her to be? If so, at what point did you realize this, and how?

Answer:

Yes, one does begin to suspect before the end of the story that the lady was not the person Horace
Danby took her to be. She was unusually calm on seeing Horace. This seemed strange enough. When
she did not call the police, and instead asked Horace to break open the safe and take out all the
jewels from it. It seemed suspicious. Moreover, it also seemed unlikely that she would forget the
code to open the safe. Therefore, it was evident, before the story ended, that she was not the
person Horace had taken her to be.

Question 7.

What are the subtle ways in which the lady manages to deceive Horace Danby into thinking she is
the lady of the house? Why doesn’t Horace suspect that something is wrong?

Answer:

Her confident walk, her act of touching up her make-up and the ease with which she picks cigarette
at the right place, are enough to deceive anybody. Horace was too frightened to think properly so he
didn’t suspect anything.

Question 8.

“Horace Danby was good and respectable but not completely honest”. Why do you think this
description is apt for Horace? Why can’t he be.categorized as a typical thief?

Answer:

“Horace Danby was good and respectable—but not completely honest”. This description is apt for
Horace. He was about fifty years old. He robbed only from rich people. His purpose of stealing
money was only to buy rare and expensive books. He stole only once every year. His intention to use
the booty in buying books was good. However, the fact that he stole to achieve this intention
showed that he was not completely honest.

He cannot be categorized as a typical thief because he did not steal to eat or drink and was not a
regular offender. He did not harm anybody during the act. He had a house. He made locks, had two
people to help him, and was successful in his business. He only stole enough money to buy the
books. For a couple of days, he even kept his promises to the lady he met at Shotover Grange by not
stealing or planning any robbery.

Question 9.

Horace Danby was a meticulous planner but still he faltered. Where did he go wrong and why?

Answer:
Horace Danby failed to get enough information about real occupants of the house. He seemed to be
too occupied with collecting other little details and information about house map, wiring and
location of valuable things. Although he was smart enough to know the dog’s actual name but
overlooked getting identity of each and every occupant of the house. Once he was in problem then
probably his clever mind gave way to carelessness leading him to open the safe without wearing
gloves.

Question 10.

Do you think Horace Danby was unfairly punished, or that he deserved what he got?

Answer:

He deserved what he got. A crime is a crime no matter what the thief does with the booty. Whether
it is committed a hundred times or just once, or even if nobody gets harmed still it is a punishable
act.

Question 11.

Do intentions justify actions? Would you, like Horace Danby, do something wrong if you thought
your ends justified the means? Do you think that there are situations in which it is excusable to act
less than honestly?

Answer:

“Ends do not justify means”, this is a very old saying and has been tested many a times. Nobody
should harm others for his own benefit. But this world doesn’t function on idealism. There are many
examples of people duping others for quick gains and earning easy money. But crime is crime even if
done for something good. These acts should be deplored and dealt with severely.