The Thief's Story

The narrator is a fifteen-year-old boy who works for people, wins their trust, then robs them and changes his name each month to stay free. He has studied thieves' faces and knows greedy men show respect, fear, hatred and friendship all at once.

Hari Singh introduces himself as a thief - not a thief of the ordinary kind, he says, but one who adopts new names every month to avoid capture. He chooses employers who are either rich or careless with money. He has studied men's faces when they lose money: respect, fear, hatred and friendship appear together, but greed is what he waits for.

One day he watched a tall, lean man about twenty-five win a wrestling bout. Hari Singh tried to flatter him and asked for work. Anil said he could not pay but might feed him if he could cook. Hari lied that he could cook - and his fate was decided.

At a wrestling match Hari Singh noticed Anil, a tall, lean, about twenty-five-year-old man who looked easy-going and simple. Hari flattered him and asked for work. Anil said he could not pay wages but would feed Hari if he could cook. Hari lied that he was an experienced cook. Anil took him home that night.

Anil made money irregularly - borrowing, winning bets, writing for magazines. He gave Hari shelter and food. Hari cooked badly at first but learned. Anil taught him to write his name and said he would teach more so Hari could become an educated man and earn properly.

Anil's income was unsteady. He borrowed one week, won a wrestling bet the next, and wrote articles for magazines. He let Hari sleep on the balcony and shared meals. Hari improved his cooking. Anil began teaching him to write his name and promised further lessons so that one day Hari might work in an office and become an educated man - a future Hari had never imagined.

One night Anil came home with a bundle of notes - six hundred rupees in fifties - his payment for a magazine article. He hid it under the mattress and slept. Hari Singh had been working for a month and knew it was time to leave with the money.

After about a month Anil sold an article and came home with a neat bundle of rupees - six hundred in fifties. He tucked it under the mattress and fell asleep. Hari had been waiting for such a moment. He knew the routine: steal, change name, disappear. That night he slipped his hand under the mattress, took the money, and left.

Hari Singh boarded a train to Lucknow but could not jump on. He walked in the cool air and thought. Without Anil he had no friends, no work, and could not cook well enough to get a job. He could buy nothing with the stolen notes - no pleasure, only fear.

At the station Hari Singh planned to catch the Lucknow express. The train was moving but he did not board. He walked through the bazaar in the chill and asked himself what he would do alone. He had no one except Anil who would trust him. He realised he could not spend six hundred rupees without suspicion, and that stealing from Anil felt different from robbing a greedy man.

He decided to return the money. Anil was still asleep. Hari Singh crept in and slid the notes back under the mattress - the whole bundle. He slept on the balcony as usual. In the morning Anil gave him a fifty-rupee note and said they would start learning to write sentences that day.

Hari crept back to the room. Anil was still asleep, one hand under the pillow. Hari slid the notes back where he had found them. He slept on the balcony. Next morning Anil handed him a fifty-rupee note - more than Hari had ever taken at one time - and said today they would begin writing whole sentences. Hari knew Anil had discovered the theft but would not hand him over to the police.

Hari Singh felt grateful and decided to stop stealing. He would learn to write, work honestly and keep Anil's trust. The story ends with hope - a thief touched by kindness chooses a new path.

The ending is subtle but clear. Anil's forgiveness - the fifty-rupee note, the promise of lessons, silence about the police - gives Hari a reason to reform. Hari thinks he will learn to write, find honest work and never steal again. Trust has achieved what punishment might not: the possibility of a better life.