THE BET

1. When and where was the party taking place? Who

were the guests who attended the party? What was the
topic of discussion?
The party took place at the banker’s residence fifteen
years ago on an autumn evening. The guests, who
attended the party thrown by the banker fifteen years
ago included scholars and journalists. There were many
clever intelligent men at the meeting and the topic of
discussion was death penalty versus life imprisonment.
Most of them disapproved of capital punishment. They
found it obsolete as a means of punishment, unfitted to
a Christian State and immoral. Some of them thought
that capital punishment should be replaced universally
by life imprisonment.

Q. 2. What was the banker’s( host’s) view on capital

punishment and life imprisonment?
Ans. The banker held a different view from others, who
attended the party. According to him capital
punishment was more moral and humane than life
imprisonment because execution kills instantly while
life imprisonment kills by degree.

Q. 3. What was the lawyer’s view on capital punishment

and life imprisonment ?

The lawyer said that if he had to choose, he would

choose life imprisonment as he felt that it is better to
live anyhow than to not live at all.

4. On what ground did one of the guests observe that

both capital punishment and imprisonment for life were
equally immoral? Do you agree/disagree with this
statement?

According to one of the guests both capital

punishment and imprisonment for life were equally
immoral because they both had the same object- to
take away life. He remarked that “The State is not God.
It has not the right to take away what it cannot restore
when it wants to.”

Q.5. When exactly was bet carried out?

Who were the persons involved in the bet ? What were
the stakes of the bet?

Ans. The bet began at 12 o’clock on 14 Nov, 1870.

The banker, a rich and young person, and the lawyer, a
young man, were the persons involved in the bet.
According to the terms and conditions of the bet it was
agreed that the lawyer would remain in a cell in the
bankers house for fifteen years. He would neither be
allowed to step out of the place, see or hear people, nor
receive letters or newspaper.

During his confinement the banker had to supply the

necessary requisites to the lawyer, for example, food,
wine, books and the means of entertainment. He was
permitted to have a musical instrument, to read books,
to write letters, to drink wine and to smoke tobacco.

If the lawyer successfully remained within the

confinement the banker had to pay two million.
However the least attempt on his part to violate the
conditions, to escape if only for two minutes before the
time freed the banker from the obligation to pay him the
two million

Q.6. What advise did the banker give the lawyer before
the bet ? Did the banker listen to his advice?
The lawyer advised the banker to come to his senses,
before it was too late. According to him two million was
nothing to him, but the lawyer would lose three or four
of the best years of his life. He did not even expect the
lawyer to stick it out any longer as voluntary
imprisonment was much heavier than enforced
imprisonment. He cautioned the lawyer that the idea
that he had the right to free himself at any moment
would poison the whole of his life in the cell.

The lawyer did not listen to his advice as he was

greedy for money and for triumph, and agreed to
exchange his freedom for two million dollars.

7. Whatwere the stakes in the bet? Would you have

taken up this bet? According to you whose stake was
higher?.
The banker staked his money worth two million while the
lawyer staked his freedom. No, I would have not taken up this
bet because fifteen years of freedom is much more worth than
two million. The lawyer's stakes were higher since he had to
give up fifteen years of his freedom which cannot be earned
back.

8.Describe the lawyers first and second year of

confinement .
In the first year of his confinement, the lawyer did not
smoke or drink. He was lonely and bored, but he spent
a lot of time playing the piano and reading books mostly
light novels with a complicated love interest, stories of
crime and fantasy, comedies, and so on.
In the second year, no sound of music came from his
room. The lawyer asked only for classics.

9.Describe the lawyers fifth year of confinement.

In the fifth year, music was heard again, and the
prisoner asked for wine. Those who watched him said
that during the whole of that year he was only eating,
drinking, and lying on his bed. He yawned often and
talked angrily to himself. He did not read books.
Sometimes at nights he would sit down to write. He
would write for a long time and tear it all up in the
morning. More than once he was heard to weep.
10.How did the prisoner’s behaviour change during the sixth
year? In the second half of the sixth year the prisoner
began to study languages, philosophy and history with zeal.
The prisoner was so engrossed in his studies that the banker
got very busy to get him the books that he ordered. In four
years the prisoner asked for six hundred volumes and learned
six languages perfectly.

11.Why did the prisoner ask the banker to fire a shot in the
garden? During the second half of the sixth year, the
prisoner learnt many languages among other disciplines. To
test if he had learnt well, he wrote a letter to the banker,
whom he addressed as “Jailer” and in it wrote lines in six
languages. He wanted the jailer to show them to people who
knew those languages. He asked the jailer to fire a shot in the
garden if all that he had written was correct. Accordingly the
lawyer's desire was fulfilled. Two shots were fired in the
garden by the banker's order. It was a signal that he had learnt
the languages perfectly.

12 How did the prisoner’s behaviour change after the tenth

year?

After the tenth year, the lawyer sat immovable before his table
and read only the New Testament. The The New Testament
was then replaced by the history of religions and theology.

13. Why was the banker afraid of honouring the bet?

Ans. The lawyer was confined for long period of fifteen
years. The banker was very rich when he had laid the
bet but with the passage of time his economic
condition had become weak. Gambling on the Stock-
Exchange, risky speculation, and recklessness had
gradually brought his business to decay. The fearless,
self-confident, proud man of business had become an
ordinary banker, trembling at every rise and fall in the
market.
Therefore, he was afraid of honouring the bet as he
thought that he would be ruined forever and the lawyer
would marry, enjoy life leaving him to a life of
bankruptcy and disgrace.
14.What is the bankers remark to himself recounting the outcome of the
evening?
As the banker, walked to and fro, he remembered the fateful evening when the
bet was laid between himself and the young lawyer and asked himself: “What
was the object of that bet? “ There was no real benefit in the lawyer losing
fifteen years of his life and the banker throwing away two million. It could not
prove that the death penalty was better or worse than imprisonment for life.
Hence it was all nonsensical and meaningless. He realized that on his part it
was the caprice of a pampered man, and on the lawyers part a simple greed for
money.

15. What did the banker do to kill the lawyer? Was he

justified in his plan of action?
Ans. The lawyers only escape from bankruptcy and
disgrace was that the lawyer should die. Hence at
three o’clock in the dark and chilly night, the banker
took the key of the cell where the lawyer was
imprisoned and approached the garden wing with the
thought of smothering him with a pillow because he
thought of the prisoner as a villain who was snoozing,
dreaming of the large numbers.
He was being selfish and was not justified in
attempting to kill the innocent lawyer to prevent his
own financial ruin.

Q. 16. What did the banker do to know that the lawyer

had escaped ? Why did he weep to read the notes of the
lawyer ?
Ans. The banker instantly went with his servants to the
cell and established the escape of his prisoner. To
avoid unnecessary rumours he took the paper from the
table and on his return locked it in his sate. He wept
out of remorse that he had misunderstood the
innocence and greatness of the lawyer and aspired to
kill him.

Q.17. What had the prisoner written in his note ?

The lawyer wrote in his note that he had studied earthly
life for fifteen years. Although the books which he had
studied during his confinement had given him wisdom
he feels that this wisdom is pointless because he now
knows the truth about every aspect of human life: that
it is "worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive." He
said that death would wipe everything from the face of
the earth. Money was no longer of any interest to the
lawyer because he now despised human materialism.
Therefore, he had decided to violate the agreement by
escaping from the cell five minutes before the fixed
time.

18. Who really won the bet ? Justify your answer.

On the face of it, the banker won the bet because the
lawyer leaves his cell five minutes before midnight—the
time of his release thereby violating the terms of the
bet. In doing so, the lawyer lets go of the two million
that would have been given to him had he completed
his term of confinement. However morally I think the
lawyer won the bet as he accquried much knowledge
and a deeper understanding of the fleeting and
transitory nature of material wealth and comforts which
made him voluntarily agree to lose the bet and give up
the two million he was about to win.