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NCERT Solutions for Class 5th English Chapter 8 A. Answer the following questions — Let us Think

Book page 95 Updated on2026-09-19

Q1.
Why did the farmer buy the well?
Answer

The farmer bought the well because he needed water for his fields.

The story tells us how it happened. He had two fields and worked very hard. “When he prospered, he bought another field. There was a well next to it.” A new field is of no use without water for the crops, so — “Since the farmer needed a source of water for his fields, he bought the well from his neighbour.”

Why water matters so much: A farmer cannot wait only for the rain. Rain may come late, or too little. A well gives water whenever the crop needs it. That is why the well was worth buying, and why losing it was such a blow.
Q2.
Why did the farmer become upset?
Answer

The farmer became upset because the neighbour would not let him take water from the well he had just bought.

The very next day the farmer reached the well and found the neighbour standing there. When the farmer asked why he was being stopped, the neighbour said, “I sold only the well to you, not the water. The water still belongs to me. You cannot take it.”

So the farmer had paid his money and owned the well, but he still could not draw a single bucket of water. The book calls him “the worried farmer”, and says he “didn’t know what to do”.

Notice what he did next: He did not shout and he did not fight. He went straight to the village chief and told her his case. That is the right way to deal with a quarrel.
Q3.
How did the Panchayat solve the problem?
Answer

The Panchayat solved the problem by hearing both men in the open, and then giving a judgment that used the neighbour’s own argument against him.

It happened in five steps:

  1. A day was fixed. The village chief did not decide on the spot. She fixed a day for a meeting of the Panchayat.
  2. Everyone gathered. The members met under the banyan tree in the centre of the village, and most of the villagers came too.
  3. Both sides were heard. Both men were summoned. The farmer explained the situation. Then the chief asked the neighbour for his reason, and he gave it.
  4. They tried talking first. The members and the villagers tried to reason with the cunning man — but “he was adamant”, so that did not work.
  5. They discussed, then judged. The members talked the matter over among themselves and then stood up to give the judgment.

The judgment itself was the clever part. The chief accepted the neighbour’s claim that only the well had been sold — and then said that in that case his water could not be kept in another man’s well. He had to take it out at once or lose it.

Why this way of deciding is fair: Nobody was judged before he had spoken. The talking was tried before the punishing. The whole village could hear, so nothing could be twisted later. And the decision followed from what the two men themselves had said, not from who was richer or louder.
Q4.
What was the final judgment given by the Panchayat?
Answer

The final judgment was this: the well belonged to the farmer, and the neighbour must remove his water from that well at once — or the water would belong to the owner of the well.

These are the chief’s own words from page 94:

“After hearing both sides, we agree that it is correct to say that only the well was sold.”

“However, if you have NOT sold the water and the water is yours, then you have no business keeping your water in his well. Remove the water or use it all up immediately. If not, the water will belong to the owner of the well.”

Two more things followed from the judgment. The neighbour “had to pay a fine as well as apologise to the farmer.”

Let us look at both sides before we say who was right.

What the neighbour saidWhat the farmer said
“I sold only the well, not the water in it. The water still belongs to me.”“He is not letting me take the water.” He had paid for the well because he needed the water for his fields.
His point is not silly. A well and the water inside it can be thought of as two different things.His point is that a well without water is only a hole in the ground. Nobody buys that.

What the story decided: The Panchayat did not call the neighbour a liar. It let his point stand — and then showed where it leads. If the water is truly his, it is his property lying inside another man’s well, and he cannot leave it there for free. Take it away, or give it up. Since nobody can carry away a whole well of water, the water became the farmer’s.

The lesson the book gives: “The cunning neighbour realised that cheating will not lead anywhere.” A trick may look clever for one day. Followed to the end, it usually turns back on the person who played it.
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