The story opens with a writer—an analogue for Dahl himself—picking up a well-dressed, effeminate young man. The narrator is meticulous, proud, and middle-class, defined by his new car’s “750 c.c. engine” and “walnut dashboard.” Dahl deliberately establishes this narrator as a creature of measurable reality. He trusts the tangible. The hitchhiker, by contrast, is pure performance: flamboyant, loquacious, and armed only with a cigarette holder and a “small brown sausage” of a hand.
When the police siren wails and the narrator is wrongly accused of speeding, the story pivots from social comedy to existential heist. The hitchhiker reveals his true profession: not a vagrant, but a “fingersmith”—a pickpocket of such dexterity that his hands are insured for £25,000. In a dazzling paragraph of kinetic prose, Dahl describes the man dismantling the policeman’s watch, wallet, and badge without the officer ever feeling a touch. The climax is not an arrest, but a revelation: the justice system is powerless against those who operate outside its mechanical logic.
The search term "Roald Dahl The Hitchhiker Pdf" is surprisingly common for several reasons: Roald Dahl The Hitchhiker Pdf
A PDF of “The Hitchhiker” is worth reading directly because Dahl’s prose rhythm is essential to the twist. The story relies on the reader’s own assumptions: you expect a speeding ticket conflict, not a pickpocketing masterclass. The final line—the narrator revealing he paid for the winning bet with the policeman’s own money—is a perfect Dahl punchline. No analysis can replace the moment of reading it cold.
Dahl obsesses over mechanics—whether it’s chewing gum in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or the BMW’s engine here. The description of the car ("the smooth purr of the engine... the smell of leather and wax") sets up the narrator’s vanity, which the hitchhiker ruthlessly deflates. The story opens with a writer—an analogue for
First published in 1977 in the collection The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, "The Hitchhiker" is a masterpiece of narrative tension. Unlike Dahl’s children’s stories, this one is steeped in adult cynicism and clever crime.
The Plot Summary: The story is narrated by a wealthy, somewhat arrogant writer who is driving his brand-new,昂贵的 BMW (a 3.8 litre, to be precise) from London to the countryside. To break the monotony, he picks up a scruffy, talkative hitchhiker. He trusts the tangible
The hitchhiker, a small, rat-faced man with quick fingers, immediately makes the narrator uncomfortable. As they drive, the hitchhiker spots a police officer hiding behind a billboard. The narrator, a stickler for rules, panics—he is speeding. The policeman pulls them over, and the narrator expects a hefty fine.
However, the hitchhiker steps out of the car and engages the policeman in a bizarre conversation, denying that the car was speeding. Suddenly, the policeman’s notebook vanishes. Then his pen. Then his whistle. The policeman, utterly flustered, gives up and lets them go.
It is here that Dahl reveals the story’s true genius. The hitchhiker is not just a vagrant; he is a "fingersmith"—a professional pickpocket of the highest order. He proceeds to show the narrator his "collection": a wallet full of stolen IDs, a dozen ballpoint pens, and—hilariously—the policeman’s whistle. The story ends with the hitchhiker admitting he was once arrested, but only because he refused to bribe a judge, choosing pride over freedom. The narrator, once smug in his luxury car, is left humbled by the sheer artistry of the thief.
The unnamed narrator, a writer, is driving his new, expensive BMW coupe when he stops for a hitchhiker—a small, pale man with delicate, "musician’s fingers." The hitchhiker is talkative, boasting about his skill at betting on horse races. When a police car pulls them over for speeding, the narrator panics, expecting a heavy fine. However, the hitchhiker takes charge: he charms the policeman, accepts the ticket, and later, as the officer drives away, reveals he has secretly removed the policeman’s notebook and pen. The climax comes when the hitchhiker admits he is not a gambler but a professional pickpocket—and that he has also stolen the policeman’s wallet and watch. The writer, astonished, pays the hitchhiker’s bet on a long-shot horse, which promptly wins.