He learnt six languages and wrote a letter to his host in all six, requesting that the letter be shown to experts and if found to be correct in every particular, a gun should be fired in the garden to convey his success to him. By the sixth year he had immersed himself in studying languages, philosophy and history. He sat up nights, writing extensively, only to tear it all up and throw it away the next morning. Then for some time he spent his time just eating, drinking, sleeping, or holding long, angry conversations with himself. By the fifth year the piano- playing resumed and wine was sent for. The second year the piano went silent and the voluntary prisoner asked for classics to read. He read light, entertaining books, played the piano for long stretches of time, refused both wine and tobacco, saying that wine stimulated desire and tobacco smoke poisoned the air.

Initially, during the first year, the young man showed signs of depression and loneliness. The banker was certain that the young man would sooner or later break but he had not reckoned with his opponent’s will-power. One thing leads to another and a contract is drawn up between the two, stipulating in great detail the terms and conditions of the agreement. The young man, inflamed, declares that he is quite prepared to pick up the wager and stay not five but 15 years in solitary confinement. To this the host scoffingly observes that no one can endure captivity for long, least of all his young critic who, he confidently predicts, was incapable of staying in captivity longer than five years and that he was prepared to stake two millions to prove his point. A young guest begs to differ, asserting that life under any conditions is preferable, even a life of captivity. The host is of the view that dying at an executioner’s hands is the more merciful fate, rather than dying by slow degrees for a protracted length of time. The usual arguments are put forward, ethical and religious.

Among the many topics of conversation is a discussion on the relative propriety of capital punishment or imprisonment for life. Global Watch | China Chronicles: How China is misusing UN to isolate Taiwan and bully others Explained: How rising temperatures are putting older Americans at riskĪ strange bet is laid between a rich banker and a young lawyer at a party thrown by the former and attended by many intellectuals and journalists.

The bet short story