The author Leo Tolstoy (1828 – 1910) wrote a short story titled “How Much Land Does A Man Need”
The story is about a peasant called Pakhom who desperately wanted to own some land.
By saving every penny he had, he bought forty acres.
He was overjoyed. However, he soon felt cramped, so he sold the 40 acres, and bought 80 acres in another region.
But this didn’t satisfy him for long, so he began to look again.
One evening a stranger arrived. Pakhom talked about his desire for more land.
The stranger told him that beyond the mountains, there lived a tribe of people who had lots of land for sale. Off he went next day.
The chief welcomed him and said, ‘For only a thousand roubles you can have as much land as you can walk round in a day. But you must return to the spot where you started on the same day, otherwise you forfeit the money.
Pakhom was thrilled. He couldn’t sleep that night, thinking of all the land that would soon be his.
As soon as the sun peeped over the horizon a marker was put down on the top of the knoll, and he was off. Men followed him on horseback and drove stakes into the ground to mark the path Pakhom traced out.
He walked fast and made excellent progress. The farther he went, the better the land became.
In his eagerness to encompass as much as he could, he lost track of time. Then to his horror he saw the sun beginning to go down.
He headed for the knoll as fast as he could.
He just made it to the top as the sun vanished. Once there, however, he collapsed face downward on the ground.
“I congratulate you,” said the chief. “You have earned more land than anyone before you.”
But Pakhom made no reply. They turned him over. He was dead.
The story concludes with Pakhom’s servant picking up the spade with which Pakhom had been marking his land and digs a grave in which to bury him: “Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed.” The servant says!