John Byro

John Byro is the owner of the stolen white horse — an Assyrian farmer who, "out of loneliness, had learned to speak Armenian." He is a poor, hard-working, lonely man for whom the loss of his horse is a real hardship: it cost him sixty dollars, leaves his surrey useless, and forces him to walk ten miles on a leg that pains him. He is patient and good-natured, mourning his loss quietly rather than angrily. Most importantly, he embodies the story's spirit of trust: even when he studies the horse, recognises it as the twin of his own and looks into its mouth, he chooses to believe in the Garoghlanian family's fame for honesty rather than the evidence of his eyes — "A suspicious man would believe his ey …