Very Short Questions
Question 1 : What did the camel eat?
Answer : The camel used to eat thorns, sticks and prickles.
Question 2 : What was the task assigned to the horse?
Answer : The horse had a saddle on his back; his task was that he could carry goods or Man from one place to another.
Question 3 : What work did Man assign to the horse, the dog and the ox at the end of the day?
Answer : At the end of the day, the Man asked the three animals to do double-work to compensate for the work loss on account of the camel.
Question 4 : What question did the horse ask the Djinn?
Answer : The horse asked the Djinn if it was “right for anyone to be idle”.
Question 5 : Since how many days had the camel done no work?
Answer : Since three days the camel had done no work. It was Monday when the horse came to call the camel. Till Thursday, when the Djinn met the camel, the camel had been idle.
Question 6 : Does the camel realise his mistake by the end of the story?
Answer : No. The camel does not realise his mistake. He had not learnt to behave well till the end of the story.
Short Questions
Question 1 : What were the different tasks assigned to the three animals?
Answer : The horse was assigned the task to carry load and goods and eve man from on place to another. The dog was assigned the task of fetching things. The task of ploughing the fields was assigned to the ox.
Question 2 : Why does the man not come to call the camel for work?
Answer : The man does not go to call the camel for work because he understood that if the camel would have been capable of work, it would have come for work on his own. It had been three days and the camel had not shown up even once for work.
Question 3 : Did the Djinn look at the camel’s hump as a punishment for not working?
Answer : During his conversation with the camel, the Djinn tries to explain the camel that he had brought the hump on himself by choosing not to do his share of work. This makes it evidently clear that the Djinn views the camel’s hump as his punishment for not working.
Question 4 : What did the Djinn mean by “I’ll humph him”?
Answer : The Djinn was in charge of the entire desert. He promised the three animals that he will “humph him (the camel)”, i.e., the would set him right by reprimanding and scolding the camel. The ‘humph him’ in this phrase could also mean reduce the hump that the camel has acquired by not working.
Long Questions
Question 1 : Imagine you are the camel. Write a diary entry describing his feelings on being reprimanded by the Djinn.
Answer :
5th November, 2020
I am very disturbed at what has happened in the desert today.
As if those three were not enough, namely the horse, the dog and the ox; today the Djinn too came to reprimand and scold me.
I do not feel like doing any work, then why should I be compelled for work. These daily reminders make me feel worse. I am fond of lazing and admiring my beauty that I can see in the pool water.
I have recently developed a humph and I am very proud of it. I fail to understand why the Djinn should call it a punishment or a hindrance. I would do some work tomorrow to ease out the matter and then again I could be free to do as I will as Camel.
Question 2 : How do you get to know which task was assigned to which animal?
Answer : When the horse came to meet the camel, he had a saddle on his back and he asked the camel to trot like the other animals. This means that the horse was being used for running from one place to another.
The dog came to meet the animal with a stick in his mouth. The dog asked the camel to fetch things like all animals.
This indicates that the dog was assigned the task of fetching and carrying things.
The ox, likewise, came with a yoke on his neck, asking the camel to plough like the other animals; indicating the task assigned to him.
Value Based Questions
Question 1 : What is the moral of the story?
Answer : The story discusses the worth of hard work. All other animals, the horse, the dog and the ox, respectively had been doing their work sincerely, except for the camel.
The camel, is therefore, disliked by all the other animals.
The Djinn also feels the need to reprimand the camel. Towards the end of the story we learn that the Camel had got his humph because he had refused to do his share of work.
The Djinn sees the camel’s hump as a punishment for him.
Question 2 : Do you think it is good to impose our share of work on the others?
Answer : No. Definitely not. Imposing our share of work on others is not a good thing. Everyone should do his/her share of work. We should not exploit others by making them do the work that we are meant to do.
Working collectively and with sincerity also increases the efficiency of doing a certain work.