"The Three Questions" is a 1903 short story by

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

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Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

as part of the collection ''What Men Live By, and Other Tales''. The story takes the form of a

parable A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, whe ...

, and it concerns a king who wants to find the answers to what he considers the three most important questions in life.

Synopsis

One day, a king determines that he will be able to cope with any occurrence if he has the answers to three critical questions: Many educated men attempted to answer the king's questions, but they all came up with different answers. The king decided that he needed to ask a wise hermit in a nearby village. The hermit would only see common folk, however, so the king disguised himself as a peasant and left his guards behind to see the hermit. The hermit was digging flower beds when the king arrived. The king asked his questions, but the hermit went on digging rather laboriously. The king offered to dig for him for a while. After digging for some time, the king again asked his questions. Before the hermit could answer, a man emerged from the woods. He was bleeding from a terrible stomach wound. The king tended to him, and they stayed the night in the hermit's hut. By the next day, the wounded man was doing better but was incredulous at the help he had received. The man confessed that he knew who the king was and that the king had executed his brother and seized his property. He had come to kill the king, but the guards wounded him in the stomach. The man pledged allegiance to the king, asked for forgiveness and went on his way. The king asked the hermit again for his answers, and the hermit responded that he had just had his questions answered:

External links

* Complete Text Online, as translated by Louise Maude and Aylmer Maude *
''"The Three Questions"''
from RevoltLib.com *

from Marxists.org
The Three Questions at The Literature Network

References

*"The Works of Tolstoi." Black's Readers Service Company: Roslyn, New York. 1928. 1903 short stories Short stories by Leo Tolstoy Parables {{1900s-story-stub

Synopsis

See also

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References