Hi Everyone!! This article will share The Jar of Olives Questions & Answers.
In my previous posts, I have shared the questions and answers of The Sword In The Stone, The Quest For Gold and O Flower O Flower so, you can check these posts as well.
The Jar of Olives Questions & Answers
Question 1: What made the merchant open the jar of olives that his friend had left with him?
Answer: The merchant’s wife wanted to buy olives. That is why the merchant opened the jar of olives which his friend, Coja Ali, had left with him seven years ago because he felt Coja Ali would never return for the olives.
Question 2: Why did his wife say that it was not the right thing to do?
Answer: The merchant’s wife felt that opening the jar would mean betraying the trust Coja Ali had placed in the merchant. Also, the olives would have gone bad after so many years. So, she felt the opening the jar was not the right thing to do.
Question 3: What did the merchant find when he opened the jar of Olives?
Answer: When the merchant opened the jar, he found that there were olives only at the top. Below the olives were a thousand gold coins.
Question 4: Which case was the Caliph concerned about?
Answer: The Caliph was concerned about the case of Coja Ali and the merchant. Coja Ali had accused the merchant of opening his jar of olives and stealing the gold coins. The merchant denied knowing anything about the gold coins. The Qazi had dismissed the merchant and so, Coja Ali had presented a petition to the Caliph.
Question 5: Why did the Caliph and his Chief Advisor stop to watch the boys?
Answer: The Caliph and his Chief Advisor stopped to watch the boys because they wanted to watch and hear the boys enact the case. For that the boys were role playing the case of Coja Ali and the merchant.
Question 6: What did Coja Ali accuse the merchant of doing?
Answer: Coja Ali had left a jar of olives with the merchant for safe-keeping. The jar actually had one thousand gold coins covered by a layer of olives. When Coja Ali returned after several years, he found that the jar was filled entirely with olives and the gold coins were missing. He accused the merchant of opening his jar of olives and stealing the gold coins.
The Jar of Olives Questions & Answers
Question 7: What was the merchant’s response?
Answer: The merchant denied having stolen the coins. He said he never knew there was gold in the jar and so he could not have taken it.
Question 8: Who did the boy Qazi send for? What did he want them to do?
Answer: The boy Qazi sent for some olive merchants to hear their opinion about olives.
Question 9: How did the boy playing the Qazi’s role settle the case?
Answer: The olive merchants told the boy Qazi that the olives in the jar were too fresh and could not be seven years old. On hearing this, the boy Qazi decided that the merchant was lying. He ordered the merchant to return the coins and asked the Officer to put him in prison.
Question 10: Did the Caliph think the boy Qazi had judged fairly? Pick a sentence from the text to support your answer.
Answer: Yes, the Caliph thought the boy Qazi had judged fairly. He said, “The child Qazi has shown me what will be a just trial.”
Question 11: Read the lines and answer the questions:
‘You can betray your friend’s faith in you if you want, I want, no part in it.’
(a) Who says these words and to whom?
Answer: The merchant’s wife says these words to the merchant.
(b) Who is the friend?
Answer: Coja Ali is the friend.
(c) How would the person betray his friend’s faith?
Answer: The merchant would betray his friend’s faith by opening the jar of olives that the friend had left with him for safe-keeping.
(d) What occurred immediately after this?
Answer: The merchant’s wife left the room and the merchant opened the jar.
Question 12: Read the lines and answer the questions:
‘Sir, these are fresh olives of this year’s growth. Every olive merchant in Baghdad will say the same.’
(a) Who said these lines and to whom?
Answer: The boy olive merchant said this to the boy Qazi.
(b) What had he been told immediately before?
Answer: The boy Qazi told the boy olive merchant that the olives in the jar were seven years old.
(c) Why did the listener want his opinion about the olives?
Answer: The listener wanted to know from the olive merchant whether the olives were old or fresh.
(d) What did he hope to prove by this?
Answer: He hoped he would be able to settle the case by knowing whether the olives were old or fresh. If the olives were fresh, it would mean that the merchant had opened the jar and taken the gold.
Question 13: Why do you think the Caliph and the Chief Adviser were in disguise?
Answer: The Caliph and the Chief Adviser wanted to hear what people thought about the case of Coja Ali and the merchant. So, they were in disguise.
Question 14: Why did the boy Zeyn refuse to play the role of the merchant?
Answer: The boy Zeyn refused to play the role of the merchant because he knew the merchant was the culprit and he didn’t want to enact the role of a thief.
So, these were The Jar of Olives Questions & Answers.