How Much Land Does A Man Need

Tolstoy, the famous Russian writer, has a story of a Russian peasant named Pakhom, who lived with his wife in humble, yet comfortable, circumstances. One day he conceived a great envy for some of his wealthy acquaintances and resolved that he too would have more land.

“Only give me more land and I fear no man, no, not even the devil himself.” As time went on he found frequent opportunities for improving his position, and wherever he went good fortune attended his labours and his harvests were consistently good. But still he was not satisfied.

“Too little land” was his invariable complaint. Then, one day, he heard tidings that made his heart throb with joy, that in the country of the Bashkirs you could buy as much land as you wished, and that for a song, provided you first humoured the peasants with suitable gifts.

He was assured that this was really so, but there was a strange custom among these people. The prospective buyer was required to put down his money in a bag at an appointed place, and from that place he would start to walk at sunrise, and all the land he staked off during the day would be his providing he arrived back at the starting-place by sunset. Pakhom saw in this custom an unprecedented prospect of wealth, and having set down his purse, he began to walk.

He went off at high speed and, scarcely stopping to eat or rest, he walked through the sweltering afternoon. On and on he went. Yes, he would take in that piece of rich land, and that, and that. By and by, he thought he had better direct his course for the starting-point again.

He was very fatigued. His feet ached. His heart throbbed. But he must redeem his pledge.

The sun now was hastening to set, and he broke into a run, and just as the sun dipped out of sight he reached the goal of desire. He fell prostrate, blood running from his mouth. He lay there dead. The land that was to bring him wealth and prosperity claimed him as its victim.

How Jesus urged men to beware of covetousness! “For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”