Sample Reading Comprehension - 24 | Reading Comprehension for UGC NET PDF Download

Directions: Read the passage and answer the questions that follow:
In a small hill town there lived a thief. He was very smart and before breaking into houses for theft he used to enquire about the lifestyles of the people staying in that house. Then at the dead of night he used to commit theft.
Dhanpatrai was a moneylender living in the same town. He was thrifty and never wasted money. He had a daughter named Laxmi. The thief knew that Dhanpatrai was rich and he had a lot of jewellery with him. Smartly the thief found out the location of the house and designed the theft. One night, getting up to the roof of the house he started removing the roof-covering made of earthen tiles.
The moneylender heard the sound and was sure that a thief was on the roof of the house. Now he had to create some ploy. He hit upon a plan. “Laxmi, Laxmi” he called out to his daughter who was sleeping. “Laxmi, I hope our money-box and jewellery are kept in the ceiling.” he asked cleverly.
Generally, in hill area, to keep house warm in winter, houses have a thatched roofing and below that, a wooden ceiling. Certain things used to be kept in the space between the roofing and wooden ceiling. So when the thief heard the question put by Dhanpatrai, he thought that there was a ceiling below the thatched roof. So he jumped down.
But actually in the house there was no wooden ceiling. So the thief fell to the floor of the house which was about fifteen feet below and broke his leg.
Immediately the moneylender called all the neighbours and they handed over the thief to the police. He saved his house from being burgled, with his ingenuity.