THE BET
BY
ANTON CHEKHOV
TRANSLATED BY
S. KOTELIANSKY AND J. M. MURRY
JOHN W. LUCE & CO: BOSTON ― 1915
I:
It was a dark autumn night. The old banker was pacing from corner to corner of his
study, recalling to his mind the party he gave in the autumn fifteen years ago. There
were many clever people at the party and much interesting conversation. They talked
among other things of capital punishment. The guests, among them not a few scholars
and journalists, for the most part disapproved of capital punishment. They found it
obsolete as a means of punishment, unfitted to a Christian State and immoral. Some
of them thought that capital punishment should be replaced universally by life-
imprisonment.
"I don't agree with you," said the host. "I myself have experienced neither capital
punishment nor life-imprisonment, but if one may judge a priori, then in my opinion
capital punishment is more moral and more humane than imprisonment. Execution
kills instantly, life-imprisonment kills by degrees. Who is the more humane
executioner, one who kills you in a few seconds or one who draws the life out of you
incessantly, for years?"
"They're both equally immoral," remarked one of the guests, "because their purpose
is the same, to take away life. The State is not God. It has no right to take away that
which it cannot give back, if it should so desire."
Among the company was a lawyer, a young man of about twenty-five. On being
asked his opinion, he said:
, "Capital punishment and life-imprisonment are equally immoral; but if I were offered
the choice between them, I would certainly choose the second. It's better to live
somehow than not to live at all."
There ensued a lively discussion. The banker who was then younger and more
nervous suddenly lost his temper, banged his fist on the table, and turning to the
young lawyer, cried out:
"It's a lie. I bet you two millions you wouldn't stick in a cell even for five years."
"If that's serious," replied the lawyer, "then I bet I'll stay not five but fifteen."
"Fifteen! Done!" cried the banker. "Gentlemen, I stake two millions."
"Agreed. You stake two millions, I my freedom," said the lawyer.
So this wild, ridiculous bet came to pass. The banker, who at that time had too many
millions to count, spoiled and capricious, was beside himself with rapture. During
supper he said to the lawyer jokingly:
"Come to your senses, young man, before it's too late. Two millions are nothing to
me, but you stand to lose three or four of the best years of your life. I say three or
four, because you'll never stick it out any longer. Don't forget either, you unhappy
man, that voluntary is much heavier than enforced imprisonment. The idea that you
have the right to free yourself at any moment will poison the whole of your life in
the cell. I pity you."
And now the banker pacing from corner to corner, recalled all this and asked himself:
"Why did I make this bet? What's the good? The lawyer loses fifteen years of his life
and I throw away two millions. Will it convince people that capital punishment is
worse or better than imprisonment for life. No, No! all stuff and rubbish. On my part,
it was the caprice of a well-fed man; on the lawyer's, pure greed of gold."
He recollected further what happened after the evening party. It was decided that the
lawyer must undergo his imprisonment under the strictest observation, in a garden-
wing of the banker's house. It was agreed that during the period he would be deprived
of the right to cross the threshold, to see living people, to hear human voices, and to
receive letters and newspapers. He was permitted to have a musical instrument, to
read books, to write letters, to drink wine and smoke tobacco. By the agreement he
could communicate, but only in silence, with the outside world through a little
window specially constructed for this purpose. Everything necessary, books, music,
wine, he could receive in any quantity by sending a note through the window. The
agreement provided for all the minutest details, which made the confinement strictly
BY
ANTON CHEKHOV
TRANSLATED BY
S. KOTELIANSKY AND J. M. MURRY
JOHN W. LUCE & CO: BOSTON ― 1915
I:
It was a dark autumn night. The old banker was pacing from corner to corner of his
study, recalling to his mind the party he gave in the autumn fifteen years ago. There
were many clever people at the party and much interesting conversation. They talked
among other things of capital punishment. The guests, among them not a few scholars
and journalists, for the most part disapproved of capital punishment. They found it
obsolete as a means of punishment, unfitted to a Christian State and immoral. Some
of them thought that capital punishment should be replaced universally by life-
imprisonment.
"I don't agree with you," said the host. "I myself have experienced neither capital
punishment nor life-imprisonment, but if one may judge a priori, then in my opinion
capital punishment is more moral and more humane than imprisonment. Execution
kills instantly, life-imprisonment kills by degrees. Who is the more humane
executioner, one who kills you in a few seconds or one who draws the life out of you
incessantly, for years?"
"They're both equally immoral," remarked one of the guests, "because their purpose
is the same, to take away life. The State is not God. It has no right to take away that
which it cannot give back, if it should so desire."
Among the company was a lawyer, a young man of about twenty-five. On being
asked his opinion, he said:
, "Capital punishment and life-imprisonment are equally immoral; but if I were offered
the choice between them, I would certainly choose the second. It's better to live
somehow than not to live at all."
There ensued a lively discussion. The banker who was then younger and more
nervous suddenly lost his temper, banged his fist on the table, and turning to the
young lawyer, cried out:
"It's a lie. I bet you two millions you wouldn't stick in a cell even for five years."
"If that's serious," replied the lawyer, "then I bet I'll stay not five but fifteen."
"Fifteen! Done!" cried the banker. "Gentlemen, I stake two millions."
"Agreed. You stake two millions, I my freedom," said the lawyer.
So this wild, ridiculous bet came to pass. The banker, who at that time had too many
millions to count, spoiled and capricious, was beside himself with rapture. During
supper he said to the lawyer jokingly:
"Come to your senses, young man, before it's too late. Two millions are nothing to
me, but you stand to lose three or four of the best years of your life. I say three or
four, because you'll never stick it out any longer. Don't forget either, you unhappy
man, that voluntary is much heavier than enforced imprisonment. The idea that you
have the right to free yourself at any moment will poison the whole of your life in
the cell. I pity you."
And now the banker pacing from corner to corner, recalled all this and asked himself:
"Why did I make this bet? What's the good? The lawyer loses fifteen years of his life
and I throw away two millions. Will it convince people that capital punishment is
worse or better than imprisonment for life. No, No! all stuff and rubbish. On my part,
it was the caprice of a well-fed man; on the lawyer's, pure greed of gold."
He recollected further what happened after the evening party. It was decided that the
lawyer must undergo his imprisonment under the strictest observation, in a garden-
wing of the banker's house. It was agreed that during the period he would be deprived
of the right to cross the threshold, to see living people, to hear human voices, and to
receive letters and newspapers. He was permitted to have a musical instrument, to
read books, to write letters, to drink wine and smoke tobacco. By the agreement he
could communicate, but only in silence, with the outside world through a little
window specially constructed for this purpose. Everything necessary, books, music,
wine, he could receive in any quantity by sending a note through the window. The
agreement provided for all the minutest details, which made the confinement strictly
