How much land does a man need? Counting the economic cost of greed
Russian legend, Leo Tolstoy in his book, ‘How much land does a man need?’ told a gripping story about the danger of making greedy choices and the potentially harmful effects on one’s life.
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This adaptation of the original version will help bring out some important lessons. A young man called Pahom worked as a farm labourer for years and managed to lease a small parcel of land to start his own farm.
After a while, he heard about another place where farm land was sold on freehold basis and far cheaper than where he was. He sold off his lease and travelled several days to the new place where he bought a parcel ten times bigger than he previously owned and started afresh.
After one year of operation, Pahom had successfully cultivated and harvested his first fruits. He worked even harder and was able to double his holdings. The townsfolk liked him and land owners were willing to continue doing business with him on even more favourable terms.
Pahom on his part kept looking at what large tracts some of them owned and wondered why he had so little. He told himself several times that life was unfair.
One day, a traveller told him about the land of the Bashkirs, a beautiful haven in the faraway western plains, near the point where the sun set. This was a place where an unlimited amount of land was sold by its owners for just a thousand roubles to anyone who wanted to work on it. The more the stranger described this awesome place, the more convinced Pahom became. The very next day, he hurriedly sold his entire land to his workers and set off to find this paradise.
New deal
After months of travel, he finally arrived and met the elders of the Bashkirs. To his surprise, they confirmed the deal and offered him as much land as he wanted on the most fertile tract he had ever seen in his life in return for a thousand roubles. There was only one condition; they would sign the papers and handover any portion of land that he could totally encircle before sunset. “Is that all?” Pahom asked. The old folks quietly nodded their heads. “Just one attempt and if you fail, you get nothing.”
The Bashkirs replied in unison. He looked at their calm demeanour and simple dressing and wondered if they knew the value of what they had. He could not believe anyone could be so stupid. Both parties agreed to do the deal the next day.
Pahom couldn’t sleep that night. In the course of the night, he drifted off to sleep and dreamt that he had died and the devil was standing over him laughing.
He woke up with a start but immediately shrugged it off. Nothing could stop him now. After years of waiting, he was finally there.
The next morning, they all met on a hill. The Chief and elders of the Bashkirs were in high spirits. After exchanging greetings and marking the starting point, Pahom set off. He went at a fast steady pace towards the east where the land looked finest. As he moved, he kept estimating how many kilometres he had covered and how much he could do with so much land. This was definitely the opportunity of his lifetime.
By noon, he was tired and hungry and paused to chew some biscuits and drink from the water bottle tucked in his belt. He had covered so many kilometres and was truly amazed at his strength.
Pahom’s struggles
Just as he was contemplating turning back, he spotted a river flowing through a portion that was even greener and seemed more fertile than all he had seen so far. He set off at a canter to try and clear that portion for some rice cultivation he had always dreamt about. By two in the afternoon he had covered that entire patch and was ready to turn. Totally exhausted and weak, he turned in the direction of the hill and set off. Just then it occured to him that he had used eight hours to get there and had only four hours to get back. Pahom panicked for the first time that day.
He took off his knapsack and also threw away his coat along with his shirt, water bottle and any other weight and began to run as fast as he could towards the starting point. He felt dizzy and blistered all over but something inside him propelled him on.
After three hours, he saw the hill in the distance and spotted the Bashkirs standing just where he had left them. The sun had begun to set and he wondered for a moment whether he would make it before it disappeared behind the hill. He threw his shoes off his blistered feet, shut his bloodshot eyes and began to stagger towards the hill.
With ten minutes to go, Pahom stumbled and crashed to the ground. He could see the top hazily but just could not make the final hundred metres left. He thought about the dream and it did not sound so strange anymore. Through the sweat and tears, he could see the elders waving some papers at him. That seemed to energise him a little and he forced himself to crawl on all fours as fast as he could.
Sadly, with only ten metres to go, Pahom collapsed once again and this time did not move. As the blood flowed from his mouth, the elders and spectators rushed to him and surrounded him. As the sun set, he opened his eyes for the last time and saw them grimly shaking their heads.
The Bashkirs exchanged knowing looks and carried his shattered body off to the public burial ground. They buried him in an ordinary grave only six feet long. That was how much land he actually needed.
Lessons
Pahom’s story will resonate with many of us as we look at our own lives. Greed is an excessive or rapacious desire, especially for wealth or possessions. He wanted the best for himself, was willing to do what it took and was also prepared to break out of his comfort zone. The biggest challenge for him however seemed to be determining what was enough at any point. His destruction was mainly a result of an unbridled desire to have more that was not moderated by wisdom and principles.
Blinded by greed, he made wrong choices and exercised indiscretion or poor judgement at key points in his career.
He also failed the planning test in respect of estimating the distance and the requirements for covering the journey in and out, an error that fatally aborted his dream and ended his life.
One other choice that could also be called into question was his decision to rush into a new career move whenever he seemed to be settling down and prospering in one. It seems to be fashionable these days for people to rush from one job to another without settling down to really take root and bear fruit.
On the corporate and national front, greed can manifest itself in an individual wrongfully amassing wealth through fraud and corruption. Resources that could be improve the lives of several people end up in one person's bosom. The scary part is the unending and seemingly insatiable quest for more. It would seem that the more people grab, the more their appetite grows. Like Leo Tolstoy asks in the story of Pahom, "How much land does a man need?"
Life is full of choices and decisions. As individuals, organisations and nations, we make decisions every day; some major, some minor and others totally trivial. Our decisions affect not just ourselves but everyone around us. Every decision we make gets us either closer to our individual and collective dreams or further away from them. The exercise of greed and avarice in our decisions can be ultimately very costly in the short term, medium term and long term.
