How Much Land Does a Man Need?

Well, the answer is 6ft x 3ft! That is how Leo Tolstoy’s story of Pahom, a landless peasant, ends. Pahom was hungry for land. He said to himself that “if I had plenty of land, I shouldn’t fear the Devil.” The Devil was listening. He thought all right: “We will have a tussle. I will give you land enough, and by means of that land I will get you into my power.” The Devil followed Pahom in his lust for land to the lands of Beshkirs. There Pahom eventually died of exhaustion—his claim to land depended on how much area he could cover on foot in a day—and was buried in a grave measuring 6ft long and 3ft wide.