Page 18 - Making It To The End Of The Month

MAKING IT TO THE END OF THE MONTH
the devil who took Pahom’s thoughts as a challenge and planned to tempt him.
Sometime later, Pahom purchased forty acres of land in the village, thinking it would make him happy. However, instead of discovering happiness, he became very possessive of his land, which caused arguments with his neighbours and resulted in Pahom losing his peace of mind.
After hearing about a prosperous community, Pahom decided to move. But he was dissatisfied living on communal land and desired to own his own property. Finally, he was introduced to the Bashkirs, who owned a huge amount of land. Pahom was told that they were simple- minded people, so he tried to negotiate a good price for as much of their land as he could get.
Their offer was unusual: to sell their land for the sum of 1,000 rubles.
The condition: Pahom had to mark out the land he wanted at that price, but he had to return to his starting point by sunset. Otherwise, he would lose the land and his money.
Pahom’s greed was aroused. He believed that he could cover a great distance. He started early the next morning, marking the land with
a spade. When he saw the sun starting to set, he headed back, but
18