Page 831 - the-brothers-karamazov

‘Katya, take this fifteen hundred from me, I’m a low beast,
and an untrustworthy scoundrel, for I’ve wasted half the
money, and I shall waste this, too, so keep me from tempta-
tion!’ Well, what of that alternative? I should be a beast and
a scoundrel, and whatever you like; but not a thief, not alto-
gether a thief, or I should not have brought back what was
left, but have kept that, too. She would see at once that since
I brought back half, I should pay back what I’d spent, that I
should never give up trying to, that I should work to get it
and pay it back. So in that case I should be a scoundrel, but
not a thief, you may say what you like, not a thief!’
‘I admit that there is a certain distinction,’ said the pros-
ecutor, with a cold smile. ‘But it’s strange that you see such
a vital difference.’
‘Yes, I see a vital difference. Every man may be a scoun-
drel, and perhaps every man is a scoundrel, but not everyone
can be a thief; it takes an arch-scoundrel to be that. Oh, of
course, I don’t know how to make these fine distinctions...
but a thief is lower than a scoundrel, that’s my conviction.
Listen, I carry the money about me a whole month; I may
make up my mind to give it back to-morrow, and I’m a
scoundrel no longer; but I cannot make up my mind, you
see, though I’m making up my mind every day, and every
day spurring myself on to do it, and yet for a whole month I
can’t bring myself to it, you see. Is that right to your think-
ing, is that right?’
‘Certainly, that’s not right; that I can quite understand,
and that I don’t dispute,’ answered the prosecutor with re-
serve. ‘And let us give up all discussion of these subtleties

0 The Brothers Karamazov