![]() ![]() There were guards watching to make sure he never violated the agreement, but they were placed so that he could never see another human being from his windows. He was allowed no visitors or newspapers. The arrangements were made, and the young man moved into a separate building on the grounds of the banker’s large estate. The lawyer was so convinced of his endurance that he announced he would stay fifteen years alone instead of only five. A wealthy, middle-aged banker believed the death penalty was a more humane penalty than solitary confinement because “an executioner kills at once, solitary confinement kills gradually.” One of his guests at a party, a young lawyer of twenty-five, disagreed, saying, “To live under any conditions is better than not to live at all.”Īngered, the banker impulsively responded with a bet of two million rubles that the younger man could not last five years in solitary confinement. The plot involves a wager between two educated men regarding solitary confinement. This story gives us great insight into the value system of most people. That pursuit is ably treated by Anton Chekhov in his classic short story The Bet. ![]() ![]() People all around us are pursuing things that have no lasting value. We live in a world that knows little about what’s truly valuable. ![]()
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