Write a character sketch of ‘Hari Singh’ with the help of the following points, using the paragraph format: Hari Singh’s background, his dishonesty, his aspirations, his courage to change himself.

Hari Singh is the narrator of Ruskin Bond’s story ‘The Thief’s Story’. He is a fifteen-year-old boy who has no family or friends and lives by stealing; though young, he is an experienced and fairly successful thief. He is thin and his face bears scars. He is dishonest and cunning: he flatters people, gives himself a new name every month to escape the police and his former employers, lies that he can cook, cheats Anil on the shopping and finally steals six hundred rupees from under Anil’s mattress. Yet he is intelligent and has ambitions. He knows that once he can write like an educated man there will be no limit to what he can achieve, and he dreams of becoming a big, clever and respected man. At the station his conscience stops him from jumping on the train, and on the rainy night he realises that education is worth more than stolen money. He shows courage by returning the money, though it is harder to return something undetected than to steal it. His genuine smile at the end shows that he has changed. Hari is an example of how love and trust can reform a person.