local Pupil_meta = { GetName = function(self) return self.name end } Pupil_meta.__index = Pupil_meta -- If a key cannot be found in an object, it will look in it's metatable's __index metamethod. local Pupil = { name = "John Doe" } setmetatable(Pupil, Pupil_meta) print( Pupil:GetName() ) -- This will look for the "GetName" key in Pupil, but it doesn't have one. So it will look in it's metatable (Pupil_meta) __index key instead.