NCERT Book Class 10 English (Foot Prints Without feet) Chapter 4 A Question of Trust

A Question of Trust 4
It is said that you must set a thief to catch
a thief. But it is also said that there is
honour among thieves. Which saying does
this story illustrate?

READ AND FIND OUT
• What does Horace Danby like to collect?
• Why does he steal every year?

EVERYONE thought that Horace Danby was a good, honest citizen. He was
about fifty years old and unmarried, and he lived with a housekeeper
who worried over his health. In fact, he was usually very well and happy
except for attacks of hay fever in summer. He made locks and was
successful enough at his business to have two helpers. Yes, Horace
Danby was good and respectable — but not completely honest.
Fifteen years ago, Horace had served his first and only sentence in
a prison library. He loved rare, expensive books. So he robbed a safe
every year. Each year he planned carefully just what he would do,
stole enough to last for twelve months, and secretly bought the books
he loved through an agent.
Now, walking in the bright July sunshine, he felt sure that this
year’s robbery was going to be as successful as all the others. For
two weeks he had been studying the house at Shotover Grange, looking
at its rooms, its electric wiring, its paths and its garden. This afternoon
the two servants, who remained in the Grange while the family was
in London, had gone to the movies. Horace saw them go, and he felt
happy in spite of a little tickle of hay fever in his nose. He came out
from behind the garden wall, his tools carefully packed in a bag
on his back.
There were about fifteen thousand pounds’ worth of jewels in the
Grange safe. If he sold them one by one, he expected to get at least five