The moral lessons in Anton Chekhov’s short story “The Bet”?

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1. In the Know. says

   The Bet By Anton Chekhov
   http://www.nyx.net/~kbanker/chautauqua/bet.html

   Plot
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bet_%28short_sto…

   The story begins in an autumn night with an old banker in his study, remembering how, fifteen years ago, he had given a party on another autumn night. There, intellectual men were debating on capital punishment; The majority of the partygoers believe it to be wrong, but the banker disagrees, stating that capital punishment kills a man at once, but life imprisonment kills a man very slowly. One guest, a twenty-five year old lawyer, declares that both capital punishment and life imprisonment are wrong, but he would gladly choose the second if necessary.

   The excited banker then declared that he would bet him two million currency that he wouldn't stay in solitary confinement for five years. The young man takes the bet, but changes the term to fifteen years. Although the banker mocking suggests he decline the bet, it is accepted anyway. The banker fifteen years later wonders why he took the bet at all.

   It was then decided the lawyer was put in a lodge in the banker's garden, and it is made so that he cannot see human beings, hear any voices, cross away from the lodge, or read any newspapers and letters. His sentence begins at midnight on November 14, 1870, and ends at midnight on November 14th, 1885. Any attempt to break the conditions will result in the void of this bet.

   For the first year of confinement, the prisoner suffers from depression and loneliness. He refused any wine and tobacco, and sends for light reading material. In the second, the prisoner does not play the piano, and he does ask for wine. He would angrily talk to himself, and did not read books.

   In the sixth year, he begins to study languages, philosophy, and history, throwing himself into studies.

   In the tenth year, the prisoner reads the Gospel, and in the last two years the lawyer read natural sciences and William Shakespeare and Lord Byron.

   And fifteen years later, the older banker realizes that if he pays the lawyer he is ruined, as he is now bankrupt due to wild gambling on the stock market. At three o' clock, the banker takes the key to the lodge, and looks through the window as the prisoner sleeps. Opening the door, the old banker discovers that the lawyer now looks similar to a skeleton. The banker thinks of murdering to avoid paying the two millions, but reads a letter that the prisoner has written first.

   The prisoner expresses contempt toward freedom, life, and health in the letter, but also expresses love toward the books he has read in the fifteen years. Thus, fully renouncing the world, he declines the two millions, preferring to go five hours before the deadline; thus breaching the contract.

   The banker, weeping, kisses the lawyer on the head, and goes out of the lodge, with feelings of self-loathing.

   The next morning, the watchmen explain to the banker that the man has disappeared, climbing out of the lodge window and escaping. The banker takes the letter and locks it up in a firepoof safe.

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