Page 1234 - the-brothers-karamazov

Chapter 11

There Was No Money.

There Was No Robbery

HERE was one point that struck everyone in Fetyukov-
Titch’s speech. He flatly denied the existence of the fatal
three thousand roubles, and consequently, the possibility of
their having been stolen.
‘Gentlemen of the jury,’ he began. ‘Every new and un-
prejudiced observer must be struck by a characteristic
peculiarity in the present case, namely, the charge of rob-
bery, and the complete impossibility of proving that there
was anything to be stolen. We are told that money was sto-
len — three thousand roubles but whether those roubles
ever existed, nobody knows. Consider, how have we heard
of that sum, and who has seen the notes? The only person
who saw them, and stated that they had been put in the en-
velope, was the servant, Smerdyakov. He had spoken of it to
the prisoner and his brother, Ivan Fyodorovitch, before the
catastrophe. Madame Svyetlov, too, had been told of it. But
not one of these three persons had actually seen the notes,
no one but Smerdyakov had seen them.

1