Semyon had done? he had six hundred kopeks; out of this he gave one,
and afterwards two. I had six hundred thousand rubles. In order to
give what Semyon had given, I should have been obliged to give three
thousand rubles, and ask for two thousand in change, and then leave
the two thousand with the old man, cross myself, and go my way,
calmly conversing about life in the factories, and the cost of liver
in the Smolensk market.

I thought of this at the time; but it was only long afterwards that I
was in a condition to draw from this incident that deduction which
inevitably results from it. This deduction is so uncommon and so
singular, apparently, that, in spite of its mathematical
infallibility, one requires time to grow used to it. It does seem as
though there must be some mistake, but mistake there is none. There
is merely the fearful mist of error in which we live.

[This deduction, when I arrived at it, and when I recognized its
undoubted truth, furnished me with an explanation of my shame in the
presence of the cook's wife, and of all the poor people to whom I had
given and to whom I still give money.

What, in point of fact, is that money which I give to the poor, and
which the cook's wife thought I was giving to her? In the majority
of cases, it is that portion of my substance which it is impossible
even to express in figures to Semyon and the cook's wife,--it is
generally one millionth part or about that. I give so little that
the bestowal of any money is not and cannot be a deprivation to me;
it is only a pleasure in which I amuse myself when the whim seizes
me. And it was thus that the cook's wife understood it. If I give
to a man who steps in from the street one ruble or twenty kopeks, why