A Story a Day #23: Leo Tolstoy

February 29th, 2020

"God Sees the Truth, But Waits"

Leo Tolstoy

A merchant in Russia is about to leave his town to go to a fair when his wife asks him not to because she had a bad dream. He goes anyway. On the way, he stops for tea with a fellow merchant. The next morning, the police begin questioning his whereabouts because the other merchant had been murdered. They searched his belongings and found a bloody knife in his bag. Though he denied everything, he was found guilty and sent to prison in Siberia. 26 years later, a new group of convicts arrives and they are chatting. One of them seems suspicious and he has an inkling that it was he who murdered the merchant. The other convict digs a hole out of the prison and the guards are asking who had done it. Though he nows, the old man does not tell on the other convict. Later, the convict confesses that he murdered the merchant and then tells the authorities. When the time comes for the old man's release, he is already dead.

Though Tolstoy is perhaps one of the most famous authors in the world, I have never attempted any of his work. As you may know from previous blog posts, I am not the biggest fan of war and bleak tales of similar fortune. This story is certainly a bleak tale of being innocent but suffering punishment anyways. We hope that the man will eventually be found innocent and live a somewhat happy life, especially after he shows integrity by not tattling. However, the opposite is the case and the man perishes in prison for something he didn't do. Perhaps this is a more realistic story than one with a happy ending. It is not uncommon for people to be falsely jailed, especially in the United States. While we all wish that the world is fair and our systems trustworthy, this is not always the case.