We are sharing a summary of class 10th English chapter A Question Of Trust whose author is Horace Danby. This story is about a thief who gets the taste of his karma. He is a complete thief and steals a rare and expensive book every year to satisfy his fondness for books.
He desires to collect rare and expensive books and so for this reason he steals them. He is not so rich as to afford them. Like any other thief, he plans very accurately and studies the house in order to steal. Soon he gets the taste of his own karma. A lady cheated on him and claims to be the owner of the house, where he wanted to steal the book. Finally, he regrets that he trusted the person from the same profession.
Let us start the summary of A question Of Trust and follow the events;
Horace Danby was in his fifties, and still unmarried. By profession, he was a locksmith and was very successful in his business. He also had two assistants to help him with his work. He was good by nature and respectable in society. But there was one thing attached to him. He was very keen on rare and expensive books. To satisfy his fondness, he steals once a year very safely.
He purchased these books from an agent and before stealing he very accurately, draws a plan. This time he is about to steal a book from Shotover Grange and for that, he studied the house very well and notice even the minute details to execute his actions. Right now the family has gone to London for vacation and the caretaker has gone out to the movies.
Horace jumped out from the garden wall and had taken the key from the kitchen door hook. Then very cleverly, he wore his gloves not to leave any speck of doubt. There he saw the flower vase and because of the fragrance of the flowers, he sneezed two-three times. After that, he heard the voice of the lady, who was pretending to be the owner’s wife. The lady told them that she had come there suddenly as she wanted her jewelry to wear at the party.
The lady had forgotten the number of the safe but she needed the jewelry so she requested the Danby to open the safe. Danby opened the safe without gloves and the lady got the jewels. Danby thought he was also safe but on the third day, a policeman arrested him for the robbery at Shotover Grange. His fingerprints were found at the house. He confessed that he had opened the safe for the owner’s wife that day. 
But in reality, the owner’s wife was about sixty years old she told the police that the story was all lie. Now, he got arrested and became the assistant librarian in the cell. He sometimes thought of the pretty young lady who was also in the same profession and robbed him. Now he believed that there is no honor among the thieves.
NCERT Solutions Of A Question Of Trust
Q1. What does Horace Danby like to collect?
Horace Danby, a not-so-rich man, likes to collect rare and expensive books.
Q2. Why does he steal every year?
Horace Danby was fond of rare and expensive books. However, he was not well-off to afford them. He stole them every year to purchase the books and cherish them.
Q3. Who is the real culprit of the story?
The real culprit in the story is a young, pretty lady who introduced herself as the house lady to Horace Danby when she caught him stealing from the locker.
Q4. What are the subtle ways in which the lady manages to deceive Horace? Why doesn’t Horace suspect that something is wrong?
The lady’s description makes her seem fit as the lady of the house. She was nowhere to be seen unless Horace sneezed which most have caused noise in the silent house. She cleverly manipulated Horace by saying that she had just arrived and wasn’t expecting a thief. She threatened him that she would call the police if he tried to escape. Such a call made Horace nervous, and his fear of going to the prison didn’t allow him to suspect her in any case.
Q5. Horace Danby was a meticulous planner but still, he faltered. Where did he go wrong and why?
Undoubtedly, Horace Danby was a meticulous planner. For two weeks, he had been studying the house intensely. He read a magazine article that described the house, giving a plan of all the rooms and a picture of the room. He had seen the palace of the key. He had even learned the name of the dog.
However, his only mistake was that he did not try to know about the owner. Had he known about the owner’s personal life, he would not have been tricked by the young lady into believing that she was his wife. He believed her very quickly and did as she said, making the mistake of leaving his fingerprints everywhere.
Conclusion
We have shared the Summary of A Question Of Trust along with the NCERT Solutions to be able to help the students to get a grasp of the chapter and be able to understand the story. The students can have a look at the critical question answer and get the way to attempt the examination.
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