The Little Grain Of Gold

The Little Grain Of Gold

a.Who is the speaker in the poem and whom is the poem addressed to?
A. The poet speaks as a beggar himself and the poem is addressed to God.

b. What did the beggar see while begging?
A. While the beggar was begging one day, he say a golden chariot at a distance.

c. What did the beggar hope to get?
A. The beggar hoped to get alms from the King.

d. Why did the beggar feel the King’s request to be jest?
A. The beggar thought that the King had been joking by asking the beggar to give him
something since the King was rich and wealthy and it was for the King to give alms
to the poor and not the other way around.

e. How did the beggar respond to the King’s request?
A. The beggar very reluctantly responded to the King’s request. At first he thought that
the King was joking but later he very slowly pulled out the smallest grain of corn that
he had from his bag and handed over to the King.

f. The beggar regretted his action at the end of the day. Why?
A. At the end of the day, when the beggar returned home and emptied his bag, to his
amazement there was a very small grain of gold among his alms. He realized that
the grain of gold was of the same size as that of the grain of corn that he had
handed over to the King. He regretted thinking that, if he had been generous enough
to hand over to the King all that he had, the King would have rewarded him tenfold.
He also realized that it was none other than God himself in the disguise of the King.
He had missed a golden opportunity to get away from his poverty only due to his
selfishness. Hence, the beggar wept bitterly in dismay.