CBSE Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 1 PDF Notes – A Letter to God 205-26
If you’re searching for Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 1 PDF Notes that explain the story instead of just handing you answers to copy, this guide covers everything you need: the summary, character sketch, theme, a full glossary, NCERT answers, MCQs, and the exact type of question this chapter tends to draw in CBSE board papers.
This is Chapter 1 of your First Flight textbook, written by Mexican author Gregorio López y Fuentes. It’s a short story, but don’t mistake short for simple — it carries one of the most commonly asked “irony” questions in the entire Class 10 English syllabus, and getting that question right depends on understanding exactly how the story’s ending works.
Use the table of contents below to jump straight to what you need, or read through from the start if you’re building your understanding from scratch.
Table of Contents
- Chapter Overview
- Detailed Summary
- Character Sketch of Lencho
- Character Sketch of the Postmaster
- Theme of the Story
- Faith by the Numbers: The Irony Explained
- Comparing Lencho’s Two Letters
- Glossary
- NCERT Questions and Answers
- Quick Revision Notes
- MCQs for Practice
- Previous Year Question (PYQ) Pattern
- Featured Answer: What Is This Story Really About?
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Conclusion
Want chapter-wise MCQs and PYQs for the rest of First Flight? Explore more Class 10 English notes on Nextoper for every chapter, all in one place.
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Chapter Overview
“A Letter to God” was written by Gregorio López y Fuentes, a Mexican writer, and first appeared in Spanish as “Una carta a Dios.” You don’t need to memorise the Spanish title for your exam, but knowing the story comes from Mexican rural life helps you picture its setting correctly — a lonely farmhouse, dependent entirely on rain, sitting on a hill above a valley.
The story follows Lencho, a farmer whose entire year’s income depends on a single cornfield. When a hailstorm destroys that field in minutes, his only remaining hope is God. What happens next — a letter, a kind-hearted postmaster, and a twist that catches almost every first-time reader off guard — is what makes this chapter a favourite for board exam questions on irony and character.
Detailed Summary
Lencho lives in the only house in a remote valley, on a low hill overlooking a river and a cornfield. He has spent the whole morning watching the sky, hoping for rain. When it finally comes, he’s thrilled, joking that the raindrops look like “new coins” — ten-cent pieces and five-cent pieces falling from the sky, promising him a good harvest.
His joy doesn’t last. The rain turns violent. A hailstorm sweeps through the valley, and by the time it passes, the cornfield is destroyed completely. Not one leaf remains on the trees. Lencho tells his sons that even a plague of locusts would have left more behind than the hail did. That night, the family sits in despair, certain they’ll go hungry for the rest of the year.
But Lencho has one belief he refuses to let go of: that God sees everything, “even what is deep in one’s conscience.” So he does something remarkable. He sits down and writes a letter — addressed simply “To God” — asking for a hundred pesos to replant his field and survive until the next harvest. He posts it himself.
At the post office, a postman finds the letter and, laughing, shows it to his boss. The postmaster laughs too, at first — until he re-reads it and realises how genuine Lencho’s faith is. Rather than let that faith be shaken, he decides to answer the letter himself. He collects money from his own salary, from his employees, and from friends willing to give “for an act of charity.” Even after all that effort, he can only gather a little more than half of what Lencho asked for — seventy pesos. He sends it in an envelope, signed with a single word: “God.”
The following week, Lencho returns to the post office expecting his letter’s answer. He shows no surprise at receiving money — his faith told him it would come. But when he counts it, he becomes furious. Certain that God could never make a mistake or send less than he asked for, Lencho concludes that the post office staff must have stolen the missing thirty pesos. He writes a second letter, this time demanding the rest — but insisting God send it any way except through the mail, “because the post office employees are a bunch of crooks.”
The story ends there, on that line, letting the irony speak for itself.
Character Sketch of Lencho
Lencho is a hardworking farmer whose entire livelihood depends on a single harvest. NCERT’s own textbook gives you a useful shortlist of words to describe him — naive, unquestioning, comical — and each one earns its place. He’s not stupid; he can write, plan, and reason clearly enough to word a letter carefully. But his faith is so absolute that it never occurs to him a human being might have answered his prayer.
This combination — genuine intelligence paired with total, unquestioning belief — is what makes Lencho more than a simple caricature. He is described as “an ox of a man, working like an animal in the fields,” a phrase that captures both his physical strength and his plain, uncomplicated way of seeing the world. His tragedy, if you can call it that, is that his faith in the invisible is stronger than his trust in the people right in front of him.
Character Sketch of the Postmaster
The postmaster is Lencho’s exact opposite in one important way: he’s deeply practical, but chooses kindness anyway. He starts out laughing at the letter, treating it as a joke worth sharing. The moment he re-reads it, though, his attitude shifts completely. He calls Lencho’s faith something he wishes he had himself.
What makes the postmaster memorable isn’t just that he helps — it’s how he helps. He doesn’t correct Lencho’s belief or explain what really happened. He protects it, quietly, at real personal cost, asking his own staff and friends to chip in. He represents the story’s quieter argument: that ordinary human decency, even when invisible and unthanked, can do as much good as any miracle.
Theme of the Story
At its core, this story is about the gap between what we believe and what actually happens — and how faith can survive contact with reality, even when it shouldn’t. Lencho’s faith in God never wavers, not even when the evidence in front of him (a signed envelope, a partial sum, ordinary human handwriting) should raise questions.
Running alongside that is a second, quieter theme: human kindness that expects nothing back. The postmaster’s decision to fund Lencho’s letter himself, rather than let his faith break, shows generosity that operates completely outside Lencho’s awareness. The story closes on a sharp irony — the very kindness meant to protect Lencho’s faith is the thing he turns around and distrusts, accusing the postmaster’s staff of the theft that, in fact, never happened.
Faith by the Numbers: The Irony Explained
This box exists because most students remember the story’s plot but fumble the exact numbers when asked to explain the irony clearly. Here’s the arithmetic laid out plainly:
- Lencho asks God for: 100 pesos
- The postmaster and staff manage to collect: 70 pesos
- The shortfall Lencho notices: 30 pesos
- Lencho’s conclusion: God cannot make mistakes, so someone must have stolen the 30 pesos
- Who Lencho blames: the post office employees — the same people who gave their own money to help him
Hold onto that last line for any exam answer on irony. The irony isn’t just that Lencho is wrong. It’s that he’s wrong in the most backwards way possible — suspecting the people who helped him, while his faith in the God who “sent” the money stays completely intact.
Comparing Lencho’s Two Letters
CBSE occasionally asks students to compare Lencho’s tone or state of mind across the story. This table makes that comparison easy to hold in your head.
| Point of Comparison | First Letter (to God) | Second Letter (after receiving money) |
|---|---|---|
| Tone | Hopeful, humble, respectful | Angry, demanding, suspicious |
| What he asks for | 100 pesos to replant his field | The remaining 30 pesos |
| Who he trusts | God completely | God still, but not the post office |
Notice that his trust in God never changes across both letters. What changes is his willingness to suspect other people — a shift that happens the moment reality doesn’t match his expectation exactly.
Glossary
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Crest | The top of a hill |
| Draped | Covered, as if with cloth |
| Locusts | Insects that fly in large swarms and destroy crops |
| Peso | Currency used in Mexico and other Latin American countries |
| Conscience | An inner sense of right and wrong |
| Amiable | Friendly and pleasant |
| Contentment | A feeling of satisfaction |
NCERT Questions and Answers
Q1. Who does Lencho have complete faith in? Which sentences in the story tell you this?
Lencho has complete faith in God, and the story makes this clear in several places: his belief that “God’s eyes see everything, even what is deep in one’s conscience,” his decision to write directly to God for money, and his later certainty that “God could not have made a mistake” when the amount fell short. Each of these moments shows a faith that never once questions itself.
Q2. Why does the postmaster send money to Lencho? Why does he sign the letter “God”?
The postmaster is moved by how genuine Lencho’s faith is, and he doesn’t want that faith broken by an unanswered letter. He collects money from his own salary, his staff, and friends, then signs it “God” so Lencho’s belief stays intact — he never intends to be recognised or thanked for it.
Q3. Did Lencho try to find out who had sent the money to him? Why or why not?
No, he didn’t. His faith was so complete that the idea of a human sender never crossed his mind. To Lencho, the money arriving was simply proof that his letter had reached its addressee.
Q4. Who does Lencho think has taken the rest of the money? What is the irony in the situation?
Lencho believes the post office employees stole the missing thirty pesos, since he’s certain God wouldn’t send less than requested. The irony is sharp: the very people he accuses are the ones who personally funded his help, while the God he never doubts is the one who, in a sense, “failed” to send the full amount — yet escapes all suspicion.
Q5. Are there people like Lencho in the real world? What kind of a person would you say he is?
Lencho is best described as naive and unquestioning rather than simply foolish. People with this kind of absolute, untested faith do exist, though they’re not common — most people’s beliefs get adjusted at least a little by contradicting evidence, which is exactly what never happens to Lencho.
Q6. There are two kinds of conflict in the story — between humans and nature, and between humans themselves. How are these illustrated?
The human-versus-nature conflict shows up in the hailstorm that destroys Lencho’s entire harvest despite his hard work and hopeful preparation. The human-versus-human conflict shows up more quietly, in Lencho’s suspicion of the postmaster’s staff — people who never wronged him at all, yet become the target of his anger simply because reality didn’t match his expectation.
Quick Revision Notes
- Author: Gregorio López y Fuentes | Chapter: First Flight, Chapter 1
- Original language: Spanish, titled “Una carta a Dios”
- Central event: Hailstorm destroys Lencho’s cornfield
- Lencho’s action: Writes a letter to God asking for 100 pesos
- Postmaster’s action: Collects 70 pesos from staff, salary, and friends; signs it “God”
- Lencho’s reaction: Angry over the missing 30 pesos, blames the post office
- Central irony: Lencho suspects the people who genuinely helped him
- Key themes: Blind faith, quiet human kindness, irony
- One-line mnemonic: “Faith unshaken, trust misplaced” — his faith in God never wavers, but his trust lands on the wrong people entirely.
MCQs for Practice
1. What did Lencho compare the raindrops to? a) Silver bells b) New coins c) Frozen pearls d) Falling stars
Answer: b) New coins
2. How much money did Lencho ask God for? a) Fifty pesos b) Seventy pesos c) A hundred pesos d) Two hundred pesos
3. Who actually collected and sent the money to Lencho? a) A wealthy landowner b) The postmaster and post office staff c) Lencho’s neighbours d) A local priest
4. Why was Lencho angry when he received the money? a) He didn’t want charity b) The money arrived too late c) The amount was less than he had asked for d) He didn’t believe it was really from God
5. What does the story’s ending mainly illustrate? a) Nature’s cruelty b) Irony and misplaced suspicion c) The importance of writing clearly d) The value of saving money
Answers: 1-b, 2-c, 3-b, 4-c, 5-b
Previous Year Question (PYQ) Pattern
This chapter tends to show up in CBSE Class 10 English papers in two recurring formats:
- A character-based or value-based question (3–5 marks), asking students to describe Lencho’s nature or discuss whether people like him exist in real life — a question type pulled almost directly from the NCERT textbook’s own word-bank exercise.
- An irony-focused analytical question, asking students to explain the irony in the story’s ending. Weak answers describe the plot; strong answers name the exact contradiction — that Lencho distrusts the people who helped him while never doubting the God who, technically, sent him less than he asked for.
If you’re revising the night before an exam, make sure you can state the irony in one clear sentence, and that you know Lencho’s exact peso numbers without hesitating.
Featured Answer: What Is This Story Really About?
“A Letter to God” is a short story by Gregorio López y Fuentes about a poor farmer named Lencho, whose entire cornfield is destroyed by a hailstorm. Certain that God will help him, he writes a letter asking for a hundred pesos. A kind-hearted postmaster, moved by this faith, secretly collects seventy pesos from his own staff and friends and sends it to Lencho signed simply “God.” Rather than feeling grateful, Lencho becomes angry that the amount is short, and he accuses the post office workers of stealing the rest. The story’s central irony is that the people who genuinely helped him become the target of his suspicion, while his unquestioning faith in an unseen God never wavers at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the theme of A Letter to God? The story explores blind faith, human kindness, and irony. Lencho’s unquestioning belief in God drives him to write a letter asking for help, and while it is human generosity that answers him, he never recognises this, choosing instead to blame the very people who helped him.
What is the irony in A Letter to God? The irony is that the postmaster and his staff act with real kindness to protect Lencho’s faith, yet Lencho repays this kindness by accusing them of theft. The people who genuinely helped him are the ones he distrusts, while his faith in an unseen God stays completely unshaken.
Why did Lencho get angry after receiving the money? Lencho had asked God for exactly a hundred pesos, but the envelope contained only seventy. Since he believed God could never make a mistake or shortchange him, he concluded that someone at the post office must have stolen the remaining thirty pesos.
Who wrote A Letter to God, and what is the story’s genre? A Letter to God was written by Mexican author Gregorio López y Fuentes, originally in Spanish as Una carta a Dios. It is a short story that blends simple realism with gentle irony.
What kind of person is Lencho? Lencho is a hardworking, deeply religious farmer with unquestioning faith. NCERT’s own word bank describes him well as naive and unquestioning, since he never doubts God but quickly doubts the ordinary people who actually helped him.
Struggling with a different First Flight chapter? Browse the full Class 10 English notes index on Nextoper for summaries, MCQs, and PYQs across every chapter.
Conclusion
This story rewards a careful second read more than a quick first one. On the surface, it’s a simple tale about a farmer, a storm, and a letter. Underneath, it’s a tightly built irony — one where the reader sees clearly what Lencho never does. For your exam, hold onto three things: the exact peso numbers (100 asked, 70 sent, 30 “missing”), the postmaster’s motive for signing the letter “God,” and the precise nature of the story’s irony — that Lencho’s faith in the unseen stays firm while his trust in real, kind people collapses instantly.
To sum up, read the ending twice. The first time, you’ll follow the plot. The second time, you’ll see exactly what makes it ironic — and that’s the version of understanding this story that actually scores marks.
More Notes: Explore other First Flight chapters, grammar notes on relative clauses and negatives for emphasis, and the full Class 10 English syllabus breakdown on Nextoper.in.
Author Bio: Written and reviewed by the Nextoper Editorial Team, a group of CBSE English educators who build chapter notes directly from the NCERT syllabus and past board paper patterns.
Freshness Note: These notes reflect the CBSE Class 10 English First Flight syllabus for the 2025-26 session and were last checked on 20 September 2026.
