Short & Long Questions: A Question of Trust | English Class 10 PDF Download

Short Answer Type Questions
Q1: What did Horace Danby hear from the doorway?
Ans: 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.

Q2: How did the lady in red convince Horace Danby to open the lock?
Ans: 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.

Q3: Was Horace Danby a typical thief?
Ans: 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.

Q4: What advice did the lady give Horace Danby about his. hay fever?
Ans: 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.

Q5: Why did Horace Danby feel sure of his success in that year’s robbery?
Ans: 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.

Q6: Did Horace Danby get the jewels from the Grange safe? Then why did the Police arrest him?
Ans: 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.

Q7: What story did the lady tell Horace Danby to get the jewels?
Ans: 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.

Q8: Why was it not difficult for Horace to open the safe?
Ans: 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.

Q9: What does the author tell us about Horace Danby’s life?
Ans: 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.

Q10: How often did Horace Danby commit a robbery every year? What did he do with the stolen money?
Ans: 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.

Long Answer Type Questions
Q11: 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 Qof Trust’?
Ans: “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.

Q12: 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 Qof 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.
Ans: 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.

Q13: “Lying and stealing are next door neighbours”. Comment.
Ans: 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.

Q14: 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.
Ans: 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.

Q15: “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?
Ans: 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.

Q16: 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?
Ans: 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.

Q17: 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?
Ans: 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.

Q18: “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?
Ans: “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.

Q19: Horace Danby was a meticulous planner but still he faltered. Where did he go wrong and why?
Ans: 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.

Q20: Do you think Horace Danby was unfairly punished, or that he deserved what he got?
Ans: 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.