The Thief’s Story ||Ruskin Bond || Shakespeare for you ||

 

The Thief’s Story

About the Author

 

Ruskin Bond is the writer of this chapter , he was born on 19 May 1934. He is an Indian author but he is a British descent. He lives together with his adopted family in Landour,Mussoorie, India. He gives credit for his success as a writer to “The Indian Council for Child Education” That has recognised his role in the growth of children's literature in India. He got many award like the Sahitya Academy Award in 1992 for “Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra”, his novel in English, PadmaShri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014.

Detail Explanation

There are two protagonist of this chapter, Anil who is a struggling writer and Hari singh who is a thief’. Anil is 25 years old mature and innocent man and hari is 15 years old thief. Hari Sigh meet to Anil when he was watching a wrestling match somewhere on the road .

 Hari singh approaches Anil and starts talking to him because he feels that he had not robbed anyone in the past few days and thought that it would be easy to rob a simple person like Anil. They start talking to each other and Anil asks the name of thief. The thief introduces himself as Hari Singh. This is not his real name as he modifies his name monthly to flee his ex employers or police. Then they started talking about some worldly matter like the wrestlers and on other topics also. Hari called him again when Anil was leaving and asked him if there was any work that he could do for Anil. Anil said that he won't able to pay him but could feed him only if he knew how to cook. Hari lied that he knew how to cook. They went to room that was above a sweet shop. Hari cooked a meal which was really bad because Anil didn't eat it. Anil asked Hari to go away but he tried to please Anil. Hari smiled in his most engaging way and Anil couldn't stop laughing watching him. Anil agreed to show Hari the way to cook, write full sentences and add numbers. Hari was very obliged as he knew that there would be no limit to robbing people once he learnt how to read and write.

The narrator wont to like working for Anil as he wont to make him tea within the morning then leave to shop for the groceries for the day. He also wont to steal 1 rupee from the cash that was given to him to shop for the groceries everyday. Anil knew that he wont to steal but didn't mind.

Anil used to make money by irregular works. Sometimes he wont to borrow money and therefore the other day, when he had money, he would be lending it to people . Whenever he wont to get money, he would leave together with his friends to celebrate.

One day, Anil return in his room with a bundle of note

and told Hari that he had sold a book to a book-publisher. At night he kept the cash safely under the mattress of his bed. Hari realized that he had been working for Anil for quite a month and had not stolen anything aside from the 1 rupee that he kept everyday from the grocery money. Hari had many chances to steal as he had the key to the space also . But he was surprised with the quantity of trust Anil had on him as he had never seen such a trusting person in his life. This trust thing was preventing him from robbing Anil as Hari thought that robbing a careless person like Anil didn't make much difference because he won't even notice that he had been robbed which took out all the fun from the work. Then he decided to stealing Anil’s money and justified himself that if he didn't steal money from Anil then also he would waste it on his friends and also,  He said to himself that Anil didn't pay him for the work that he did for hm.

Hari then awakened in the dark and quietly crawled to Anil’s bed. He steals the cash and decides to go away the town by Lucknow Express that departed at 10:30.

He reached the railway-station and the train had slowly started moving from the platform. He could have easily caught the train, but he was hesitate and he himself didn't know the reason for it. Before he had reached the station he counted the cash and it had been 600 rupees in 50 rupee notes. He could live a lavish life for 2 - 3 weeks with so much money. After the train had left, Hari was on their lonesome at the railway station . He was left with no place to sleep at night. The only person he knew was Anil and he had looted him also . He sat on a bench during a park and because it began to rain, he sat down under the tower . Then he found that the notes had got wet. He realized that learning the way to read and write would help him to urge a way more respectable and honest job which might pay him far more than these few hundred rupees. Then he decided to travel back to Anil’s house.

He reached the room and placed the money back. Next morning, he awakened a touch late and Anil had already made his tea. Anil gave a 50 rupee note to Hari as he had got purchased some work and he would be paid regularly. Hari felt that the note in his hand and observed that the note was still wet from the rain last night. Hari realized that Anil had come to understand about his wrong deed but there was no sadness, anger or guilt in his mind. The narrator smiled during a beautiful way and it had been real happiness as he knew that he had saved himself from the incorrect road.