The Cause of it All

by Leo Tolstoy

IGNÁT. I'm doing it friendly-like. Drink [ offers vódka ].

AKULÍNA. He says himself—it's the cause of all evil—and he's been in prison because of it.

MICHAEL. What were you in prison for?

TRAMP[ very drunk ] I've suffered for expropriation.

MICHAEL. What's that?

TRAMP. Why, this way. Came up to a fat paunch: “Give up your money, else here's a levolver.”^[4] He tries this way and that, but forks out 2,300 roubles.

AKULÍNA. Oh Lord!

TRAMP. We meant to dispose of it the proper way. Zembrikóf was our leader. Then those ravens swooped down on us. At once under arrest, and into prison.

IGNÁT. And took the money away?

TRAMP. Of course. Only they could not convict me. At the trial the procurator said these words to me: “You've stolen money” says he; and I answer him straight: “Thieves steal, but we have performed an expropriation for our Party.” And he didn't know what to say. He tried this way and that, but couldn't answer me. “Lead him,” says he, “to prison,” that is—to the incarceration of free life.