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The Bet & Power

September 28th, 2007 by kdanielle

In the story The Bet a banker and a lawyer get into an argument over which is worse, being put in prison for life, or being executed. The lawyer thinks that prison would be better because he thinks it’s better to live someway than to not live at all. But the banker has another idea about things. He believes that execution is a better choice due to it being a quicker death rather than dragging all of the life out of a person in the matter of years.

After the argument that the two powerful men had discussed, the banker made a bet to the lawyer that he couldn’t stay in prison for five years. The lawyer told the banker that he could stay in prison for fifteen years for 2 million rubles (this is Russian money). The bet is made and the lawyer goes to prison, but the twist is that it’s not really a prison…it is the bankers house and this means that the lawyer can walk out any time that he desires.

Throughout the lawyers first year in prison he starts to read short novels and play the piano to pass the time away. On his second year the piano was heard no more and the lawyer started to read classic novels. By the fifth year the piano was heard again, and he was known to weep in the night more than once. I think that he did this because he knew it was his fifth year, and if he hadn’t made the bet for fifteen he would have been walking out the door.

Nearing the end of the story the banker loses all of his money gambling and making deals that went sour. So the banker comes to a decision. It had been 15 years and the lawyer will be gone in the morning. He decides to kill him. He walked into the damp dark room and sees the sleeping man whom he made a bet with for 2 million rubles…and finds a note. This note explains what the lawyer thought of the banker and what he planned to do.

“Your books gave me wisdom. I know that I am cleverer than you all you are mad and gone the wrong way. You worship things, not ideas. You take falsehood for truth and ugliness for beauty. So do I marvel at you. You have traded heaven for earth. I do not want to understand you.”

“ To show that I despise all that you live by, I give up the two million I once so desired. Can your money buy wisdom? No. I shall come out of here five minutes before noon tomorrow (this is when they made the deal) I shall thus break our agreement.”

This is not the complete letter that the lawyer to the banker but just the important parts. When you really start to think about it, who has more power? I believe that the lawyer has more power over the banker because it all depends on him…if he stayed until noon, or if he left, he really decided who got the money.

I think that this story is a great one for any age group to read because it can really send a message to just about anyone. It teaches us about who really holds more power, what you can do wrong with your life, and what the important things are in life.

P.S.- At the end of the story…the lawyer walks out five minutes before noon.

Katie

Posted in At school posts | | |


One Response to ' The Bet & Power '

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  1.   andyd said,

    on September 28th, 2007 at 2:30 pm

    Hey Katie,
    Nice job on the Blog. I also thought that the lawyer had much more power compared to then banker because he is muchn more wise and learns a lot more while he does hid time in prison. Nice job and I thought your post was real intersting and good.

    ANDY

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