A Question of Trust Class 10: NCERT English Chapter 4 PDF

This page carries the official NCERT A Question of Trust Class 10 chapter PDF from Footprints Without Feet, the supplementary reader for Class 10 English.

In this chapter Victor Canning tells the story of Horace Danby, a careful locksmith and part-time thief, and the stranger in red he meets while robbing a house — and the official file with the full story and its question sets is right below.

A Question of Trust Class 10 PDF (official NCERT download)

Use the official link below to download the NCERT A Question of Trust Class 10 chapter PDF (official edition) and read the complete story, its READ AND FIND OUT questions and its end-of-chapter tasks exactly as printed in the book.

The file comes from ncert.nic.in, so it matches the printed Footprints Without Feet reader page for page.

Reference: NCERT Class 10 English textbook, chapter 4, official edition on ncert.nic.in.

A Question of Trust Class 10 chapter at a glance

This section maps what the chapter file contains, so you know its shape before you open it.

By name, the chapter holds the following blocks. It opens with a note that asks which of two sayings the story illustrates — that you must set a thief to catch a thief, or that there is honour among thieves.

Two READ AND FIND OUT sets sit inside the story, one near the opening and one just after the turning point, each with two short comprehension questions. The story itself closes with a GLOSSARY entry for hay fever, and the final pages hold Think about it, Talk about it and a Suggested reading list of three short stories.

This is a fiction chapter, so its material is narrative: there are no worked examples, formulas, tables or graphs to study, and the illustrations in the book are untitled pictures rather than labelled diagrams.

Story walkthrough: the turning points of A Question of Trust

This is a short story, so the chapter teaches through events, not diagrams. The beats below follow the text in order, so you can re-locate any moment quickly — or follow the whole plot if you have not finished it.

1. The opener is a riddle: the chapter asks which of two sayings the story illustrates — set a thief to catch a thief, or honour among thieves.
2. The setup: Horace Danby is a locksmith of about fifty, unmarried, looked after by a housekeeper who frets over his health, and prone to hay fever every summer. Fifteen years ago he served his first and only prison sentence, in the prison library.
3. The yearly plan: rob one safe a year, take enough to last twelve months, and spend the money on rare, expensive books bought in secret through an agent.
4. The target: Shotover Grange, studied for two weeks — its rooms, electric wiring, paths and garden. The family is in London and the two servants have gone to the movies. A magazine article has already helped him: it printed a plan of all the rooms and even mentioned that the painting hid the safe.
5. The entry: he takes the kitchen key from its hook, puts on gloves, and calms the dog Sherry by name. Then a bowl of flowers on the table starts the tickle in his nose, and the sneezes begin.
6. The safe: easy for a man who has lived with locks all his life, and the burglar alarm is so poorly built that he simply cuts its wire. He has four hours before the servants return.
7. The woman in red: a quiet, kindly voice with firmness in it comes from the doorway — young, pretty, dressed in red, with Sherry rubbing against her. She talks about his hay fever, moves about the house as if she owns it, and warns him that society must be protected from men like him.
8. The deal: Horace, desperate to avoid prison, agrees to open the safe. She claims the jewels are hers and that she needs them for a party that night; within an hour he has opened the safe, handed over the jewels and gone free, promising never to do this again.
9. The kept promise: he keeps his word for two days. On the morning of the third day, thinking about the books he wants, he begins to plan another safe — and by noon the police have arrested him.
10. The truth: his fingerprints are all over the room because he opened the safe without gloves. The real wife — gray-haired, sharp-tongued, sixty — says his story is nonsense. The charming lady in red was a thief in the same profession as Horace.

READ AND FIND OUT answers: Who is speaking to Horace Danby? It is the young woman in red — a thief, not the owner’s wife. Who is the real culprit? The same young woman: she tricks Horace into opening the safe, takes the jewels, and lets him take the blame.

Key ideas: trust, thieves and irony

This story is a test of trust. The reader is made to trust the woman in red exactly as Horace does, which is why the twist lands.

• The two sayings. The chapter opens by asking which saying the story illustrates, and the ending answers it. The woman who tricks Horace is herself a thief, and Horace now grows angry at any talk of honour among thieves — so the story illustrates “set a thief to catch a thief” and shows “honour among thieves” to be hollow.
• Why the twist works. The story withholds the owner’s wife’s age and looks until after the arrest. Only then does the real wife appear — gray-haired, sharp-tongued, sixty — and dismiss his story as nonsense. Until that moment the reader pictures the young lady in red as the lady of the house, exactly as Horace does.
• “Good and respectable — but not completely honest.” This is the book’s own description of him, and it is why he cannot be called a typical thief: he steals only from people who have plenty of money, once a year, and spends the proceeds on rare books. He hates prison, tries only to frighten rather than hurt, and keeps his promise for two days.
• First READ AND FIND OUT answers. What does Horace like to collect? Rare, expensive books. Why does he steal every year? To buy them — one safe a year gives him enough for twelve months.
• Where the meticulous plan went wrong. The chapter’s own question asks this, and the answer is human rather than technical: the sneeze that answered a voice, the moment he took off his gloves to please her, and the decision to trust a stranger who held out freedom.

Read the table below as two columns of the same scene: what Horace sees, and what the reader learns only at the end.

Definitions and words to know in A Question of Trust

This is a vocabulary window, and one word matters more than the rest because it drives the plot: hay fever.

The chapter’s GLOSSARY defines hay fever as a disorder of the nose and throat caused by an allergy to pollen or dust. In the story it is a plot engine: the tickle in Horace’s nose becomes the sneeze that answers the voice from the doorway, and the bowl of flowers on the table keeps him sneezing while he works.

Common mistakes students make with A Question of Trust

The part of this story students get wrong is identity, and one wrong answer about who the lady is poisons the theme and character answers that follow. Watch for these five.

Exam guidance for A Question of Trust Class 10

The surest way to prepare this chapter is to use the question sets NCERT built into the book, because these are the exact kinds of tasks a teacher can set on a short story.

• READ AND FIND OUT — two comprehension sets; both are answered on this page, in the story walkthrough and in key ideas.
• Think about it — four questions: when you first suspected the lady and how; the subtle ways she deceives Horace and why he misses them; whether the description “good and respectable — but not completely honest” fits him and why he is not a typical thief; and where the meticulous plan went wrong. Each is answered by a section above.
• Talk about it — two discussion questions: was Horace unfairly punished, and do intentions justify actions. Both sides are arguable. The lady’s line that society must be protected from men like Horace supports punishment; his narrow, non-violent crime and his terror of prison support leniency.
• Caution for every chapter: textbook contents and the examinable syllabus are not always identical — check the current official syllabus.
• Reading advice: the story is short enough for one continuous read, and the twist only works if you meet the lady at the same moment Horace does — so do not skip ahead to the ending before the first read.

For quicker revision of the whole book, our Class 10 English notes collect the chapters of both readers, and the Class 10 revision hub links every subject. Everything else on this site starts from the CBSE notes home page.

A Question of Trust Class 10 in one quick recap

The whole story in one tight recap, built so you can re-tell it aloud in under a minute.

• Horace Danby, a fifty-year-old locksmith with hay fever and one old prison sentence behind him, robs one safe a year to buy rare books.
• He studies Shotover Grange for two weeks, then slips in through the kitchen while the servants are at the movies.
• A bowl of flowers makes him sneeze, and a young woman in red — whom he takes for the lady of the house — catches him.
• She threatens him with the police, then offers a deal: open the safe and walk free.
• He opens it, she takes the jewels, and he keeps his promise for two days.
• On the third day the police arrest him; his fingerprints are all over the room.
• The real wife — gray-haired, sharp-tongued, sixty — denies his story, and the lady in red turns out to be a thief.
• Horace, now assistant librarian in the prison, gets angry whenever anyone talks about honour among thieves.

Related resources for Class 10 English NCERT books

This listing is maintained for the 2026-27 academic session using the NCERT textbook information available to us. NCERT remains the authority for confirming the latest edition.

Finish the task from here — the book page, the Class 10 hub and the neighbouring chapters of this reader.

• Class 10 English NCERT books page — both English readers in one place.
• Class 10 NCERT books hub — every subject’s book page.
• Previous chapter in Footprints Without Feet.
• Next chapter in Footprints Without Feet.

For the other Class 10 English reader, First Flight, the lesson notes for Two Stories About Flying and Glimpses of India are here on the site.

To confirm the current edition and browse the whole book, use the official NCERT textbooks portal; the chapter PDF itself is linked at the top of this page.

Sources and data verification

Four plain facts for checking this page.

• This page describes Chapter 4 of the NCERT Class 10 English supplementary reader Footprints Without Feet — A Question of Trust by Victor Canning — as published in the official NCERT edition on ncert.nic.in.
• It covers this chapter only, not the other Class 10 English books or the remaining chapters of this reader.
• The page is maintained for the current academic session using the NCERT material available to us.
• NCERT settles textbook content, editions and PDFs; CBSE settles curriculum, syllabus and examinations.

Frequently asked questions about A Question of Trust

Who is the real culprit in A Question of Trust?

The real culprit is the young woman in red. She is a thief in the same profession as Horace, not the owner’s wife: she gets him to open the safe, takes the jewels and lets the police arrest him. The actual wife, a gray-haired woman of sixty, denies his story.

Why does Horace Danby steal every year?

He steals once a year to pay for rare, expensive books. One safe gives him enough money to last twelve months, and he buys the books secretly through an agent.

Why did the police find Horace Danby’s fingerprints at Shotover Grange?

Because he took off his gloves on purpose, to light the lady’s cigarette with his lighter, and then opened the safe with bare hands. His prints were therefore all over the room, and no one believed his account of what had happened.

Who is the young woman in red in A Question of Trust?

She presents herself as the owner’s wife, but she is really a clever young thief. She moves around the house as if she owns it, quiets the dog, claims the jewels are hers, and tricks Horace into opening the safe for her.

Why does Horace Danby get angry about the saying honour among thieves?

Because the woman who tricked him was herself a thief. The chapter opens by asking which saying the story illustrates, and the ending answers: the story shows there is no honour among thieves.

Was Horace Danby unfairly punished in the story?

The story leaves the question open. For the punishment: the lady in red says society must be protected from men like Horace. Against it: he stole only from the rich, once a year, never hurt anyone, feared prison more than anything, and was caught by a fellow thief who escaped with the jewels.

Reference: NCERT Class 10 English textbook, chapter 4, official edition on ncert.nic.in.