June 19, 2025 • 19 mins
Ron Reads narrates Anton Chekhov's thought-provoking short story "The Bet," a tale of an impulsive wager between a wealthy banker and a young lawyer about whether fifteen years of voluntary imprisonment is preferable to death.
• Wealthy banker hosts a party where guests debate the morality of capital punishment versus life imprisonment
• Young lawyer accepts banker's wager of two million rubles that he can't remain in solitary confinement for fifteen years
• Prisoner evolves through stages of entertainment, classical study, religious contemplation, and finally transcendent wisdom
• Banker loses his fortune and contemplates murdering the prisoner to avoid paying the debt
• Prisoner's final letter renounces worldly possessions and knowledge, calling all earthly pursuits meaningless
• Prisoner escapes five minutes before the deadline, rejecting the money and leaving the banker in shame
Please like and subscribe, leave us a five-star rating and write us a review. I would love to read what you have to say.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello, are you tired?
You will be.
This is Ron Reeds.
We're reading the Bet by AntonChekhov.
By Anton Chekhov, it was a darkautumn night.
(00:28):
The old banker was pacing fromcorner to corner of his study,
recalling, to his mind, theparty he gave in the autumn 15
years before.
There were many clever peopleat the party and much
interesting conversation.
They talked, among other things, of capital punishment.
(00:51):
The guests, among them not afew scholars and journalists,
for the most part disapproved ofcapital punishment.
They found it obsolete as ameans of punishment unfitting to
a Christian state and immoral.
Some of them thought thatcapital punishment should be
(01:13):
replaced universally by lifeimprisonment.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I don't agree with you said the host.
I myself have experiencedneither capital punishment nor
life imprisonment.
But if one may judge a praoree,then in my opinion capital
punishment is more moral andmore humane than imprisonment.
Execution kills instantly.
(01:39):
Life imprisonment kills bydegrees.
Who is the more humaneexecutioner?
"'one who kills you in a fewseconds?
"'or one who draws the life outof you "'incessantly for years'
"'They're both equallyimmortal' "'remarked one of the
(02:00):
guests "'because their purposeis the same "'to take away life.
"'The purpose is the same totake away life.
The state is not good.
It has no right to take awaythat which it cannot give back,
if it should so desire.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Among the company was a lawyer, a young man of about
twenty-five.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
On being asked his opinion, he said Capital
punishment and life imprisonmentare equally immoral, but if I
were offered the choice betweenthem, I certainly would choose
the second.
It's better to live somehowthan not to live at all.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
There ensued a lively discussion.
The banker, who was thenyounger and more nervous,
suddenly lost his temper, bangedhis fist on the table and,
turning to the young lawyer,cried out it's a lie.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
I bet you two millions you wouldn't stick in a
cell, even for five years.
If you mean it seriously,replied the lawyer, then I bet
I'll stay not five, but fifteen,fifteen, done, cried the banker
.
Gentlemen, I stake two millions.
(03:18):
Agreed, you stake two millions.
I my freedom, said the lawyer.
You stake two millions.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I my freedom, said the lawyer.
So this wild, ridiculous betcame to pass.
The banker, who at that timehad too many millions to count,
spoiled and capricious, wasbeside himself with rapture
During supper he said to thelawyer jokingly Come to your
senses, young Roan, before it'stoo late.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Two millions are nothing to me, but you stand to
lose three or four of the bestyears of your life.
I say three or four becauseyou'll never stick it out any
longer.
Don't forget either, youunhappy man, that voluntary is
(04:10):
much heavier than enforcedimprisonment.
The idea that you have theright to free yourself at any
moment would poison the whole ofyour life in the cell.
I pity you.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And now the banker, pacing from corner to corner,
recalled all this and askedhimself why did I make this bet?
What's the good If the lawyerloses 15 years of his life and I
throw away two millions?
Will it convince people thatcapital punishment is worse or
(04:39):
better than imprisonment forlife?
No, no, all stuff and rubbish.
He recollected further whathappened after the evening party
(05:00):
.
It was decided that the lawyermust undergo his imprisonment
under the strictest observationin a garden wing of the banker's
house.
It was agreed that during theperiod he would be deprived of
the right to cross the threshold, to see living people, to hear
(05:20):
human voices and to receiveletters in newspapers.
He was permitted to have amusical instrument, to read
books, to write letters, todrink wine and smoke tobacco.
By the agreement he couldcommunicate, but only in silence
, with the outside world througha little window especially
(05:41):
constructed for this purpose.
Everything necessary books,music, wine he could receive in
any quantity by sending a notethrough the window.
The agreement provided for allthe minutest details which made
the confinement strictlysolitary, and it obliged the
lawyer to remain exactly 15years, from 12 o'clock November
(06:04):
14, 1870 to 12 o'clock November14, 1885.
The least attempt on his partto violate the conditions to
escape, if only for two minutesbefore the time, freed the
banker from the obligation topay him the two millions.
During the first year ofimprisonment the lawyer as far
(06:26):
as it was possible to judge fromhis short notes suffered
terribly from loneliness andboredom.
From his wing, day and night,came the sound of the piano.
He rejected wine and tobacco.
Wine, he wrote, excites desires, and desires are the chief foes
of a prisoner.
Besides, nothing is more boringthan to drink good wine alone,
(06:50):
and tobacco spoils the air inhis room.
During the first year thelawyer was sent books of a light
character, novels withcomplicated love interests,
stories of crime and fantasy,comedies and so on.
The second year the piano washeard no longer and the lawyer
(07:10):
asked only for classics.
In the fifth year, music washeard again and the prisoner
asked for wine.
Those who watched him said thatduring the whole of that year
he was only eating, drinking andlying on his bed.
He yawned often and talkedangrily to himself.
Books he did not read.
Sometimes at nights he wouldsit down to write.
(07:32):
He would write for a long timeand tear it all up in the
morning.
More than once he was heard toweep languages, philosophy and
(07:52):
history.
He fell on these subjects sohungrily that the banker hardly
had time to get books enough forhim.
In the space of four years,about 600 volumes were brought
at his request.
It was while that passion lastedthat the banker received the
following letter from theprisoner my dear Gayoler, I am
writing these lines in sixlanguages.
(08:13):
Show them to experts.
Let them read them.
If they do not find one singlemistake, I beg you to give
orders to have a gun fired offin the garden.
By the noise I shall know thatmy efforts have not been in vain
.
The geniuses of all ages andcountries speak in different
languages, but in them all burnsthe same flame.
(08:34):
Oh, if you knew my heavenlyhappiness now that I can
understand them.
The prisoner's desire wasfulfilled.
Two shots were fired in thegarden by the banker's order.
Later on, after the tenth year,the lawyer sat immovable before
his table and read only the NewTestament.
(08:56):
The banker found it strangethat a man who in four years had
mastered six hundred eruditevolumes, should have spent
nearly a year reading one book,easy to understand and by no
means thick.
The New Testament was thenreplaced by the history of
religions and theology.
During the last two years ofhis confinement the prisoner
(09:20):
read an extraordinary amountquite haphazard.
Now he would apply himself tothe natural sciences, then he
would read Byron or Shakespeare.
Notes used to come from him inwhich he asked to be sent at the
same time a book on chemistry,a textbook of medicine, a novel
(09:41):
and some treatise on philosophyor theology.
He read as though he wereswimming in the sea among broken
pieces of wreckage and, in hisdesire to save his life, was
eagerly grasping one piece afteranother.
The banker recalled all thisand thought Tomorrow at twelve
o'clock he receives his freedom.
(10:02):
Under the agreement, I shallhave to pay him two millions.
If I pay, it is all over withme.
I am ruined forever.
Fifteen years before he had toomany millions to count, but now
he was afraid to ask himselfwhich he had more of money or
debt.
Gambling on the stock exchange,risky speculation and the
(10:23):
recklessness of which he couldnot rid himself even in old age
had gradually brought hisbusiness to decay, and the
fearless, self-confident, proudman of business had become an
ordinary banker, trembling atevery rise and fall in the
market.
That cursed bet, murmured theold man, clutching his head in
despair.
Why didn't the man die?
(10:45):
He's only forty years old.
He will take away my lastfarthing, marry, enjoy life,
gamble on the exchange, and Iwill look like an envious beggar
and hear the same words fromhim every day I'm obliged to you
for the happiness of my life,let me help you.
No, it is too much.
The only escape from bankruptcyand disgrace is that the man
(11:08):
should die.
The clock had just struck three.
The banker was listening In thehouse.
Everyone was asleep and onecould hear only the frozen trees
whining outside the windows.
Trying to make no sound, hetook out his safe key of the
door, which had not been openfor 15 years, put on his
(11:30):
overcoat and went out of thehouse.
The garden was dark and coldand it was raining.
A damp, penetrating wind howledin the garden and gave the
trees no rest.
Though he strained his eyes,the banker could see neither the
ground, nor the white statues,nor the garden wing, nor the
(11:51):
trees.
Appro white statues, nor thegarden wing, nor the trees.
Approaching the garden wing, hecalled the watchman twice.
There was no answer.
Evidently the watchman hadtaken shelter from the bad
weather and was now asleepsomewhere in the kitchen or
greenhouse.
If I have the courage tofulfill my intention, thought
the old man.
The suspicion will fall on thewatchman first of all.
(12:14):
In the darkness, he groped forthe steps and the door and
entered the hall of the gardenwing, then poked his way into a
narrow passage and struck amatch.
Not a soul was there.
Someone's bed with nobedclothes on it stood there.
(12:34):
An iron stove loomed dark inthe corner.
The seals on the door that hadled to the prisoner's room were
unbroken.
When the match went out, theold man, trembling from
agitation, peeped into thelittle window.
In the prisoner's room a candlewas burning dimly.
The prisoner himself sat by thetable.
Only his back, the hair on hishead and his hands were visible.
(12:58):
Open books were strewn about onthe table, the two chairs and
on the carpet near the table.
Five minutes passed and theprisoner never stirred.
Fifteen years' confinement hadtaught him to sit motionless.
The banker tapped on the windowwith his finger, but the
prisoner made no movement inreply.
Then the banker cautiously torethe seals from the door and put
(13:21):
the key into the lock.
The rusty lock gave a hoarsegroan and the door creaked.
The banker expected instantlyto hear a cry of surprise and
the sound of steps.
Three minutes passed and it wasquiet inside as it had been
before he made up his mind toenter.
Before the table sat a manunlike an ordinary human being.
(13:44):
It was a skeleton with tightdrawn skin with curly, long
curly hair like a woman's, andshaggy beard.
The color of his face wasyellow, of an earthly shade, the
cheeks were sunken and the backlong and narrow, and the hand
upon which he leaned his hairyhead, was so lean and skinny
(14:07):
that it was painful to look upon.
His hair was already silveringwith gray, and no one who
glanced at the senile emaciationof the face would have believed
that he was only forty yearsold.
On the table, before his bendedhead, lay a sheet of paper on
which something was written in atiny hand.
Poor devil, thought the banker.
(14:30):
He's asleep and probably seeingmillions in his dreams.
I have only to take and throwthis half-dead thing on the bed,
smother him a moment with apillow, and the most careful
examination will find no traceof unnatural death.
But first let us read what hehas written here.
The banker took the sheet fromthe table and read Tomorrow at
(15:02):
twelve o'clock midnight, I shallobtain my freedom.
The banker took the sheet fromthe table and read before God
who sees me.
I declare to you that I despisefreedom, life, health and all
that your books call theblessings of the world.
For 15 years I have diligentlystudied earthly life.
True, I saw neither the earthnor the people, but in your
(15:25):
books I drank fragrant wine,sang songs, hunted deer and wild
boar in the forest, loved womenand beautiful women like clouds
ethereal created by the magicof your poets.
Genius visited me by night andwhispered to me wonderful tales
which made my head drunken.
(15:46):
In your books I climbed thesummits of Elbrus and Mont Blanc
and saw from there how the sunrose in the morning and in the
evening it suffused the sky, theocean and lie mountain ridges
with a purple gold.
The lightnings glimmered,cleaving the clouds.
(16:11):
I saw green forests, fields,rivers, lakes, cities.
I heard sirens singing and theplaying of pipes of pan.
I touched the wings ofbeautiful devils who came flying
to me to speak of God.
In your books I cast myself intobottomless abysses, worked
miracles, burned cities to theground, preached new religions,
(16:34):
conquered whole countries.
Your books gave me wisdom.
All that unwarying humanthought created in the centuries
is compressed to a little lumpin my skull.
I know that I am cleverer thanyou all and I despise your books
, despise all worldly blessingsand wisdom.
Everything is void, frail,visionary and delusive as a
(16:57):
mirage, though you be proud andwise and beautiful, yet will
death wipe you from the face ofthe earth like the mice
underground, and your posterity,your history and the
immortality of your men ofgenius will be as a frozen slag,
burned down together with theterrestrial globe.
(17:20):
You are mad and gone the wrongway.
You take falsehood for truthand ugliness for beauty.
You would marvel if, suddenly,apple and orange trees should
bear frogs and lizards insteadof fruit, and if roses should
begin to breathe the odor of asweating horse.
So do I marvel at you who havebartered heaven for earth.
(17:47):
I do not want to understand youthat I may show you, indeed, my
content for that which you live.
I waive the two millions ofwhich I had once dreamed of as
paradise and now despise, inwhich I now despise that I may
deprive myself of my right tothem.
I shall come out from here fiveminutes before the stipulated
(18:09):
term and thus shall violate theagreement.
When he had read, the banker putthe sheet on the table, kissed
the head of the strange man andbegan to weep.
He went out of the wing.
Never at another time, not evenafter his terrible losses on
the exchange, had he felt suchcontempt for himself as now.
(18:29):
Coming home, he lay down on hisbed, but agitation and tears
kept him a long time fromsleeping.
The next morning, the poorwatchman came running to him and
told him that they had seen theman who lived in the wing climb
through the window into thegarden.
He had gone to the gate anddisappeared.
The banker instantly went withhis servants to the wing and
(18:54):
established the escape of hisprisoner.
To avoid unnecessary rumors, hetook the paper with the
renunciation from the table and,on his return, locked it in his
safe.
This has been the bet by AntonChekhov.
(19:16):
You've been listening to RonReed's Boring Books.
Please like and subscribe,leave us a five-star rating and
write us a review.
I would love to read what youhave to say.
Goodbye.
Hello, are you tired?
You will be.
This is Ron Reeds.
We're reading the Bet by AntonChekhov.
By Anton Chekhov, it was a darkautumn night.
(00:28):
The old banker was pacing fromcorner to corner of his study,
recalling, to his mind, theparty he gave in the autumn 15
years before.
There were many clever peopleat the party and much
interesting conversation.
They talked, among other things, of capital punishment.
(00:51):
The guests, among them not afew scholars and journalists,
for the most part disapproved ofcapital punishment.
They found it obsolete as ameans of punishment unfitting to
a Christian state and immoral.
Some of them thought thatcapital punishment should be
(01:13):
replaced universally by lifeimprisonment.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I don't agree with you said the host.
I myself have experiencedneither capital punishment nor
life imprisonment.
But if one may judge a praoree,then in my opinion capital
punishment is more moral andmore humane than imprisonment.
Execution kills instantly.
(01:39):
Life imprisonment kills bydegrees.
Who is the more humaneexecutioner?
"'one who kills you in a fewseconds?
"'or one who draws the life outof you "'incessantly for years'
"'They're both equallyimmortal' "'remarked one of the
(02:00):
guests "'because their purposeis the same "'to take away life.
"'The purpose is the same totake away life.
The state is not good.
It has no right to take awaythat which it cannot give back,
if it should so desire.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Among the company was a lawyer, a young man of about
twenty-five.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
On being asked his opinion, he said Capital
punishment and life imprisonmentare equally immoral, but if I
were offered the choice betweenthem, I certainly would choose
the second.
It's better to live somehowthan not to live at all.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
There ensued a lively discussion.
The banker, who was thenyounger and more nervous,
suddenly lost his temper, bangedhis fist on the table and,
turning to the young lawyer,cried out it's a lie.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
I bet you two millions you wouldn't stick in a
cell, even for five years.
If you mean it seriously,replied the lawyer, then I bet
I'll stay not five, but fifteen,fifteen, done, cried the banker
.
Gentlemen, I stake two millions.
(03:18):
Agreed, you stake two millions.
I my freedom, said the lawyer.
You stake two millions.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I my freedom, said the lawyer.
So this wild, ridiculous betcame to pass.
The banker, who at that timehad too many millions to count,
spoiled and capricious, wasbeside himself with rapture
During supper he said to thelawyer jokingly Come to your
senses, young Roan, before it'stoo late.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Two millions are nothing to me, but you stand to
lose three or four of the bestyears of your life.
I say three or four becauseyou'll never stick it out any
longer.
Don't forget either, youunhappy man, that voluntary is
(04:10):
much heavier than enforcedimprisonment.
The idea that you have theright to free yourself at any
moment would poison the whole ofyour life in the cell.
I pity you.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And now the banker, pacing from corner to corner,
recalled all this and askedhimself why did I make this bet?
What's the good If the lawyerloses 15 years of his life and I
throw away two millions?
Will it convince people thatcapital punishment is worse or
(04:39):
better than imprisonment forlife?
No, no, all stuff and rubbish.
He recollected further whathappened after the evening party
(05:00):
.
It was decided that the lawyermust undergo his imprisonment
under the strictest observationin a garden wing of the banker's
house.
It was agreed that during theperiod he would be deprived of
the right to cross the threshold, to see living people, to hear
(05:20):
human voices and to receiveletters in newspapers.
He was permitted to have amusical instrument, to read
books, to write letters, todrink wine and smoke tobacco.
By the agreement he couldcommunicate, but only in silence
, with the outside world througha little window especially
(05:41):
constructed for this purpose.
Everything necessary books,music, wine he could receive in
any quantity by sending a notethrough the window.
The agreement provided for allthe minutest details which made
the confinement strictlysolitary, and it obliged the
lawyer to remain exactly 15years, from 12 o'clock November
(06:04):
14, 1870 to 12 o'clock November14, 1885.
The least attempt on his partto violate the conditions to
escape, if only for two minutesbefore the time, freed the
banker from the obligation topay him the two millions.
During the first year ofimprisonment the lawyer as far
(06:26):
as it was possible to judge fromhis short notes suffered
terribly from loneliness andboredom.
From his wing, day and night,came the sound of the piano.
He rejected wine and tobacco.
Wine, he wrote, excites desires, and desires are the chief foes
of a prisoner.
Besides, nothing is more boringthan to drink good wine alone,
(06:50):
and tobacco spoils the air inhis room.
During the first year thelawyer was sent books of a light
character, novels withcomplicated love interests,
stories of crime and fantasy,comedies and so on.
The second year the piano washeard no longer and the lawyer
(07:10):
asked only for classics.
In the fifth year, music washeard again and the prisoner
asked for wine.
Those who watched him said thatduring the whole of that year
he was only eating, drinking andlying on his bed.
He yawned often and talkedangrily to himself.
Books he did not read.
Sometimes at nights he wouldsit down to write.
(07:32):
He would write for a long timeand tear it all up in the
morning.
More than once he was heard toweep languages, philosophy and
(07:52):
history.
He fell on these subjects sohungrily that the banker hardly
had time to get books enough forhim.
In the space of four years,about 600 volumes were brought
at his request.
It was while that passion lastedthat the banker received the
following letter from theprisoner my dear Gayoler, I am
writing these lines in sixlanguages.
(08:13):
Show them to experts.
Let them read them.
If they do not find one singlemistake, I beg you to give
orders to have a gun fired offin the garden.
By the noise I shall know thatmy efforts have not been in vain
.
The geniuses of all ages andcountries speak in different
languages, but in them all burnsthe same flame.
(08:34):
Oh, if you knew my heavenlyhappiness now that I can
understand them.
The prisoner's desire wasfulfilled.
Two shots were fired in thegarden by the banker's order.
Later on, after the tenth year,the lawyer sat immovable before
his table and read only the NewTestament.
(08:56):
The banker found it strangethat a man who in four years had
mastered six hundred eruditevolumes, should have spent
nearly a year reading one book,easy to understand and by no
means thick.
The New Testament was thenreplaced by the history of
religions and theology.
During the last two years ofhis confinement the prisoner
(09:20):
read an extraordinary amountquite haphazard.
Now he would apply himself tothe natural sciences, then he
would read Byron or Shakespeare.
Notes used to come from him inwhich he asked to be sent at the
same time a book on chemistry,a textbook of medicine, a novel
(09:41):
and some treatise on philosophyor theology.
He read as though he wereswimming in the sea among broken
pieces of wreckage and, in hisdesire to save his life, was
eagerly grasping one piece afteranother.
The banker recalled all thisand thought Tomorrow at twelve
o'clock he receives his freedom.
(10:02):
Under the agreement, I shallhave to pay him two millions.
If I pay, it is all over withme.
I am ruined forever.
Fifteen years before he had toomany millions to count, but now
he was afraid to ask himselfwhich he had more of money or
debt.
Gambling on the stock exchange,risky speculation and the
(10:23):
recklessness of which he couldnot rid himself even in old age
had gradually brought hisbusiness to decay, and the
fearless, self-confident, proudman of business had become an
ordinary banker, trembling atevery rise and fall in the
market.
That cursed bet, murmured theold man, clutching his head in
despair.
Why didn't the man die?
(10:45):
He's only forty years old.
He will take away my lastfarthing, marry, enjoy life,
gamble on the exchange, and Iwill look like an envious beggar
and hear the same words fromhim every day I'm obliged to you
for the happiness of my life,let me help you.
No, it is too much.
The only escape from bankruptcyand disgrace is that the man
(11:08):
should die.
The clock had just struck three.
The banker was listening In thehouse.
Everyone was asleep and onecould hear only the frozen trees
whining outside the windows.
Trying to make no sound, hetook out his safe key of the
door, which had not been openfor 15 years, put on his
(11:30):
overcoat and went out of thehouse.
The garden was dark and coldand it was raining.
A damp, penetrating wind howledin the garden and gave the
trees no rest.
Though he strained his eyes,the banker could see neither the
ground, nor the white statues,nor the garden wing, nor the
(11:51):
trees.
Appro white statues, nor thegarden wing, nor the trees.
Approaching the garden wing, hecalled the watchman twice.
There was no answer.
Evidently the watchman hadtaken shelter from the bad
weather and was now asleepsomewhere in the kitchen or
greenhouse.
If I have the courage tofulfill my intention, thought
the old man.
The suspicion will fall on thewatchman first of all.
(12:14):
In the darkness, he groped forthe steps and the door and
entered the hall of the gardenwing, then poked his way into a
narrow passage and struck amatch.
Not a soul was there.
Someone's bed with nobedclothes on it stood there.
(12:34):
An iron stove loomed dark inthe corner.
The seals on the door that hadled to the prisoner's room were
unbroken.
When the match went out, theold man, trembling from
agitation, peeped into thelittle window.
In the prisoner's room a candlewas burning dimly.
The prisoner himself sat by thetable.
Only his back, the hair on hishead and his hands were visible.
(12:58):
Open books were strewn about onthe table, the two chairs and
on the carpet near the table.
Five minutes passed and theprisoner never stirred.
Fifteen years' confinement hadtaught him to sit motionless.
The banker tapped on the windowwith his finger, but the
prisoner made no movement inreply.
Then the banker cautiously torethe seals from the door and put
(13:21):
the key into the lock.
The rusty lock gave a hoarsegroan and the door creaked.
The banker expected instantlyto hear a cry of surprise and
the sound of steps.
Three minutes passed and it wasquiet inside as it had been
before he made up his mind toenter.
Before the table sat a manunlike an ordinary human being.
(13:44):
It was a skeleton with tightdrawn skin with curly, long
curly hair like a woman's, andshaggy beard.
The color of his face wasyellow, of an earthly shade, the
cheeks were sunken and the backlong and narrow, and the hand
upon which he leaned his hairyhead, was so lean and skinny
(14:07):
that it was painful to look upon.
His hair was already silveringwith gray, and no one who
glanced at the senile emaciationof the face would have believed
that he was only forty yearsold.
On the table, before his bendedhead, lay a sheet of paper on
which something was written in atiny hand.
Poor devil, thought the banker.
(14:30):
He's asleep and probably seeingmillions in his dreams.
I have only to take and throwthis half-dead thing on the bed,
smother him a moment with apillow, and the most careful
examination will find no traceof unnatural death.
But first let us read what hehas written here.
The banker took the sheet fromthe table and read Tomorrow at
(15:02):
twelve o'clock midnight, I shallobtain my freedom.
The banker took the sheet fromthe table and read before God
who sees me.
I declare to you that I despisefreedom, life, health and all
that your books call theblessings of the world.
For 15 years I have diligentlystudied earthly life.
True, I saw neither the earthnor the people, but in your
(15:25):
books I drank fragrant wine,sang songs, hunted deer and wild
boar in the forest, loved womenand beautiful women like clouds
ethereal created by the magicof your poets.
Genius visited me by night andwhispered to me wonderful tales
which made my head drunken.
(15:46):
In your books I climbed thesummits of Elbrus and Mont Blanc
and saw from there how the sunrose in the morning and in the
evening it suffused the sky, theocean and lie mountain ridges
with a purple gold.
The lightnings glimmered,cleaving the clouds.
(16:11):
I saw green forests, fields,rivers, lakes, cities.
I heard sirens singing and theplaying of pipes of pan.
I touched the wings ofbeautiful devils who came flying
to me to speak of God.
In your books I cast myself intobottomless abysses, worked
miracles, burned cities to theground, preached new religions,
(16:34):
conquered whole countries.
Your books gave me wisdom.
All that unwarying humanthought created in the centuries
is compressed to a little lumpin my skull.
I know that I am cleverer thanyou all and I despise your books
, despise all worldly blessingsand wisdom.
Everything is void, frail,visionary and delusive as a
(16:57):
mirage, though you be proud andwise and beautiful, yet will
death wipe you from the face ofthe earth like the mice
underground, and your posterity,your history and the
immortality of your men ofgenius will be as a frozen slag,
burned down together with theterrestrial globe.
(17:20):
You are mad and gone the wrongway.
You take falsehood for truthand ugliness for beauty.
You would marvel if, suddenly,apple and orange trees should
bear frogs and lizards insteadof fruit, and if roses should
begin to breathe the odor of asweating horse.
So do I marvel at you who havebartered heaven for earth.
(17:47):
I do not want to understand youthat I may show you, indeed, my
content for that which you live.
I waive the two millions ofwhich I had once dreamed of as
paradise and now despise, inwhich I now despise that I may
deprive myself of my right tothem.
I shall come out from here fiveminutes before the stipulated
(18:09):
term and thus shall violate theagreement.
When he had read, the banker putthe sheet on the table, kissed
the head of the strange man andbegan to weep.
He went out of the wing.
Never at another time, not evenafter his terrible losses on
the exchange, had he felt suchcontempt for himself as now.
(18:29):
Coming home, he lay down on hisbed, but agitation and tears
kept him a long time fromsleeping.
The next morning, the poorwatchman came running to him and
told him that they had seen theman who lived in the wing climb
through the window into thegarden.
He had gone to the gate anddisappeared.
The banker instantly went withhis servants to the wing and
(18:54):
established the escape of hisprisoner.
To avoid unnecessary rumors, hetook the paper with the
renunciation from the table and,on his return, locked it in his
safe.
This has been the bet by AntonChekhov.
(19:16):
You've been listening to RonReed's Boring Books.
Please like and subscribe,leave us a five-star rating and
write us a review.
I would love to read what youhave to say.
Goodbye.
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