A Question of Trust — Practice

Question 1

Why did Horace Danby rob a safe once every year?

Accepted Answer

✦ Answer: to get money to buy the rare, expensive books he loved.

Question 2

Whom did Horace think the young woman was?

Accepted Answer

✦ Answer: the lady (wife) of the house — the owner of Shotover Grange.

Question 3

Why were only Horace's fingerprints found on the safe?

Accepted Answer

Because the woman persuaded him that gloves were unnecessary, so he opened the safe bare-handed.

✦ Answer: he opened the safe without gloves, on the woman's advice.

Question 4

How was Horace Danby different from an ordinary criminal?

Accepted Answer

Step 1 — He seemed a respectable citizen who made locks and was liked by all.

Step 2 — He robbed only one safe a year, and not out of greed but to buy rare books — an unusual, almost gentle motive.

✦ Answer: he was a respectable-seeming, book-loving man who robbed just once a year, unlike a typical greedy criminal.

Question 5

How did the young woman trick Horace?

Accepted Answer

Step 1 — She pretended to be the lady of the house and caught Horace at the safe.

Step 2 — Instead of calling the police, she claimed she needed the jewels but had lost the key, and persuaded him to open the safe for her — telling him gloves were not needed — then took the jewels.

✦ Answer: posing as the owner, she got him to open the safe bare-handed and hand over the jewels, then left him to be blamed.

Question 6

What happened to Horace in the end, and why?

Accepted Answer

Step 1 — The real family returned to find the jewels gone.

Step 2 — The only fingerprints on the safe were Horace's (because he had removed his gloves), so he was arrested and sent to prison for the theft — even though the woman had taken the jewels.

✦ Answer: he was arrested and jailed because his fingerprints alone were on the safe.

Question 7

Why is the story titled 'A Question of Trust'? Explain its irony.

Accepted Answer

Step 1 — Horace, a thief, is undone not by the police but by trusting a stranger who seemed trustworthy.

Step 2 — He believed the woman was the owner and that she would let him go, so he did the risky work of opening the safe — and was betrayed.

Step 3 — The irony deepens: a criminal is destroyed by misplaced TRUST, and later, in prison, he grumbles about 'honesty' among thieves.

Step 4 — The title thus mocks the idea of trust between dishonest people.

✦ Answer: Horace's downfall is trusting the wrong person; ironically, a thief is ruined by trust and even complains about dishonesty.

Question 8

What lessons about trust and honesty does the story offer?

Accepted Answer

Step 1 — Misplaced trust can be dangerous — we should be careful whom we trust, especially strangers.

Step 2 — Wrongdoing tends to backfire; crime does not pay, as Horace's careful plan collapses.

Step 3 — Cleverness used dishonestly harms others (the woman) but also reflects a corrupt world.

Step 4 — Honesty and lawful means are ultimately safer and wiser than deceit.

✦ Answer: be careful whom you trust, crime does not pay, and honesty is wiser than deceit.

Practice — A Question of Trust

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