What is the title of Leo Tolstoy’s 1886 short story about a peasant’s greed for land?
Answer
How Much Land Does a Man Need?
Leo Tolstoy’s 1886 short story about a peasant’s greed for land is titled “How Much Land Does a Man Need?”
The story follows Pahom, a peasant who believes that owning more land will make him secure and happy. His desire steadily grows as he acquires larger areas, but each success creates a new ambition rather than satisfaction.
Tolstoy builds the plot around a final bargain: Pahom is promised as much land as he can walk around in a day, provided he returns to his starting point before sunset. The apparently generous offer becomes a test of greed, endurance, and human limits.
The story is often remembered for its closing moral, which answers the title’s question through Pahom’s fate. It is sometimes confused with Tolstoy’s other moral tales, including “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” but the land-seeking peasant and the fatal race belong specifically to this story.