A Question of Trust Short Summary

A Question of Trust Summary Cass 10 English: This is a story about a robber named Horace Danby. He was about fifty-years old. He was unmarried. He had hay fever. He used to make locks. He used to break one safe every year in order to arrange money for his hobby of rare and expensive books. He would steal once in a year for the books and then he would purchase books of his choice. He chose a house at Shotover Grange for his next robbery. He studied the house looking at its rooms, its electrical wiring etc. There was a jewellery of around fifteen thousand pound in the safe of this house. The money after the sale of these jewels would bring him enough money for his books. One day he saw the servants going to movie and he planned to enter the house. With his tool on his back, he entered inside the house. But the flowers on the table made his nose tickle and he sneezed. Then he put on his gloves and started working for robbery. When he was trying to break open the safe, another young lady appeared there. She said that she was the wife of the owner. She told him that her husband was away. Horace got frightened and started begging her pardon. He hated prison very much.

Finally, the two reached a deal. The deal was that Horace would break open the safe and hand over the jewellery to the lady for the night party and she would let him go. Horace agreed. But he removed his gloves and then he starts his work thinking that the lady was really the wife of the owner. Thus, his fingerprints were left all over the house. He makes a promise to the lady that he will never rob again. He handed over the jewellery to the young lady and went home. But after some days, he again started planning a robbery to fulfil his desire of having rare books. But he could not implement his plans as a policeman came to arrest him. His finger prints were found all over the house and his plea that the owner’s wife had asked him to break the safe went unheard in the court of law. The owner’s wife was an old woman who said that he was a liar and he was sent to prison.

Now, Horace is an assistant librarian in the prison. He often thinks of the sweet young lady in red dress who played as owner’s wife and tricked him. He gets very angry when any one talks about the ‘honour among thieves.

A Question of Trust: Long Summary

Horace Danby

Horace Danby was about 50 years old and unmarried. He was in the business of making locks and had two helpers. He was well was well and happy but had attacks of hay fever in summer. He had a good social reputation of being a good and honest person. But Horace was not completely honest. He had a passion of reading rare and expensive books.

Danby as an Unusual Thief

He was not completely honest. To fulfil the desire of his passion for reading rare and expensive books, Horace Danby committed theft and robbed a safe every year. He had served his first and only sentence in prison library 15 years ago. He secretly bought the books he loved through an agent. He was now out on committing a robbery. 

Horace Plans a Theft

Horace started with a well-thought-out plan. For two weeks Horace had studied the country house at Shotover Grange, whose owners normally lived in London. He wanted to burgle (enter illegally for a crime) the jewellery lying in the safe in this house. Horace entered the house when the servants were away. He had an allergy to flowers called hay fever. He started sneezing. Then he heard a lady’s voice. She told him a cure for the sneeze.

A Young and Pretty Lady Disturbs his Plan of Robbery

Then a young and pretty lady appeared in the doorway. She was young and pretty. Horace’s first thought was to run, as the lady told him that she would telephone the police. Horace told her to let him go and forget she ever saw him.

Lady’s Condition for Horace’s freedom

The lady put one condition for letting Horace go. She told him that she had promised her husband to take her jewels to the bank. She had, however, left the jewels in the safe, as she wanted to wear the jewels in a party that night. She came down to get them, but had forgotten the number combination to open the safe. So she needed his help to break open the safe. So, Horace opened the safe for her and handed her the jewels to get his freedom.

Horace Got Arrested

After two days a policeman arrested him for the Jewel robbery at Shotover Grange. Horace’s fingerprints were found all over the room. He had opened the safe without using his gloves. He told the police that the lady of the house had told him to open the safe. But the actual lady was a sixty-year-old woman. She said that Horace’s story was nonsense. Then Horace realised that the pretty young woman was also a jewel thief who had used his skill to steal the jewels.

Horace’s Question of Trust

Horace is now the assistant librarian in the prison. He often thinks of that pretty and charming lady that tricked him into opening the safe and getting him into the jail. He felt angry whenever anyone talks about ‘honour among thieves’.