How is the title of the story "A Snake in the Grass" by R. K. Narayan significant?

The title of R. K. Narayan’s story “A Snake In the Grass”
seems relevant to the story in various ways, including the
following:

• Most obviously, the title refers to
  the cobra which (according to a passing biker) has slithered into a compound owned by a
  family in India.


• The family’s old servant, Dasa, is
  scolded by the family members for not cutting grass and foliage on the property in ways
  that would discourage snakes from visiting the compound. Dasa asserts that there is no
  snake, but the family members not only swear at him but threaten to fire him if the
  snake is not found. Since the phrase “snake in the grass” conventionally refers to a
  treacherous or untrustworthy person, it is possible, especially when the story is
  re-read, to see the members of the family as figurative snakes in the grass. They are
  willing to fire an old servant simply because they suspect that a
  snake may be on the property and because they blame him entirely for the snake’s
  presence. Surely Dasa must feel that he cannot trust this family; he may even consider
  them treacherous.


• Visiting neighbors also blame Dasa for
  the presence of the snake and accuse him of laziness. It would not be surprising if Dasa
  also considered these people “snakes in the grass,” especially if they criticize him
  when they know his job is at risk.


• A college-educated son
  – a member of the family – claims to have read that 30,000 people die of snake bites
  each year.  It would therefore not surprise this son if there were many, many literal
  snakes in many yards or fields throughout the
  world.


• Finally, near the end of the story, Dasa claims to
  have caught the snake in a pot, which he has covered with a slab of stone. The family
  members are said to have

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stood at a safe distance and gazed on the pot.
Dasa had the glow of a champion on his
face.

Dasa takes the pot out
of the compound, his job apparently
secure.

• Later, a cobra does indeed appear but
  then quickly slithers away. This snake is quite literally a snake in the
  grass.


• By the end of the story, the family and Narayan’s
  readers are faced with the real possibility that Dasa lied when he claimed to have
  caught a cobra in the pot.  Dasa, then, may have been the literally untrustworthy person
  in this story – the figurative snake in the grass.  It is, however, hard to blame him,
  and certainly the tone of the story seems light and almost comical. The title of the
  story seems serious; the tone of the story seems relatively light.