The Bet by Anton Chekhov: Summary, Themes and Ending Explained

Summary of the original story

At a party, a rich banker and his guests argue about whether the death penalty is crueller than life in prison. The banker says execution is kinder. A young lawyer of twenty-five says he would choose prison: any life is better than none.

The banker bets him two million roubles that he couldn't stand five years in solitary confinement. The lawyer raises it to fifteen. From noon on 14 November 1870 until noon on 14 November 1885 he will live alone in a lodge in the banker's garden. He may have books, music, wine and anything he asks for by note, but he may not see or speak to another person. If he leaves even two minutes early, he loses.

In the first year he is lonely and depressed, plays the piano day and night and refuses wine and tobacco. In the second year he reads the classics. In the fifth year he asks for wine and does little but lie on his bed. From the sixth year he studies languages, philosophy and history, getting through six hundred books in four years. Then he reads the Gospels, then theology, and in the last years anything at all, from chemistry to Byron to Shakespeare, "like a shipwrecked man" grabbing at wreckage.

Meanwhile the banker gambles on the stock exchange and loses almost everything. Paying two million would ruin him. On the last night he creeps into the lodge at 3 a.m. to kill the prisoner before the deadline.

He finds a thin, aged man asleep at the table beside a letter. In it the lawyer says his books have shown him the whole world and he now despises all of it, money included. To prove it, he will walk out five hours early and lose the bet on purpose. The banker kisses his head, weeps and goes home. In the morning the lawyer has gone. The banker locks the letter in his safe.

How our version is different

Our seven-minute version moves the bet to the present day. Baron Plum is the banker, Pistachio is the lawyer, and the prison is a sealed room with one phone, one bowl and one locked door. Plum loses his fortune to a crypto fund, a meme stock and a rocket company that goes sideways.

Everything that matters is still Chekhov's: the six hundred books, the 3 a.m. visit, the letter and the five hours.

Characters

The banker (Baron Plum)

Rich, confident and careless with money. He makes the bet for fun and is ready to commit murder to get out of it.

The lawyer (Pistachio)

Young and sure he is right. Fifteen years of reading turn him into someone who no longer wants anything the banker can give him.

Themes

The ending explained

The lawyer loses on purpose. He gives up the money to show that it, and everything else people chase, means nothing to him now.

The banker is saved but not happy. He has never despised himself so much. He planned to kill a man over money, and that man turned the money down. Locking the letter in his safe "to avoid unnecessary talk" shows he still cares more about how things look than about what he has learned.

Questions students ask