The story of the Honest thief

 

chapter 1 of short stories this is a

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recording by greg giordano short stories

by fedor dostoevsky

chapter 1 an honest thief one morning

just as i was about to set

off to my office agrafina my cook washer

Woman and housekeeper came in to me

and

to my surprise entered into conversation

she had always been such a silent simple

creature that except her daily inquiry

about dinner she had not uttered a word

for the last

six years i at least had heard nothing else

from her here i have come in to have a

word with

you sir she began abruptly you really

ought to let the little room

which little room why the one next the

kitchen to be sure what for what for why

because folks to

take in lodgers to be sure but who would

take it who would take it

why a lodger would take it to be sure but

my good woman one could not put a

bedstead in it there wouldn't be room to

move who could live in it who wants to

live there as long as he

has a place to sleep in why he would live

in the window in what window

in what window as though you didn't

know the one in the passage to be sure

he

would sit there sewing or doing anything

else maybe he would sit on a chair too

he's got a chair and he has a table too

he's got everything who is he then oh a

good man a man of

experience i will cook for him and ill ask

him three rubles a month for his board

and

lodging after prolonged efforts i

suCceeded at last in learning from agra

finamanaged to persuade her to emit him

into the kitchen as a larger

and border any notion agrafina took into

for anything else i consented forthwith he

has a passport

anyway or something of the sort to be

Sure he has he isa good man

a man of experience three rubles he's

promised to pay the very next day the

new lodger made

his appearance in my modest bachelor

quarters but i was not put out by this

indeed i

was inwardly pleased i lead as a rule a

very lonely hermit's existence

i have scarcely any friends i hardly ever

go anywhere as i had spent 10 years

never coming out

of my shell i had of course grown used

to solitude but another 10 or 15 years or

more of

the same solitary existence with the

same agrofina in the same bachelor

quarters

prospect and therefore a new inmate if

well-behaved was a heaven-sent blessing

agrafina had spoken trulymy lodger was certainly a man of

experience from his passport it appeared

that he was an old soldier

a fact which i should have known indeed

from his face an old soldier is easily

recognized

astophy ivanovic was a favorable

specimen of his class we got on very well

together

what was best of all astophy ivanovic

would sometimes tell a story describing

some incident in his own life

in the perpetual boredom of my existence

such a storyteller was a veritable treasure

one day he told me one of these

stories it made an impression on me the

following event was what led to it

i was left alone in the flat both astofey

and agrafina were out on business of

their own

all of a sudden i heard from the inner

room somebody i fancied a stranger

come in i went out there actually was

stranger in the passage a short fellow

wearing no overcoat in spite of the cold

autumn weather

what do you want does a clerk called

alexandrov live here nobody of that name

here brother goodbye

why the dvornik told me it was here said

my visitor cautiously retiring towards the

door

be off be off brother get along next day

after dinner well astofi ivanovic was

coat which he was altering for me again

someone came into the passage i half

opened the door

before my very eyes my yesterday's

visitor with perfect composure took my

wadded

great coat from the peg and stuffing it

under his arm darted out of the flat

agrafina stood all the time staring at him

a gape with astonishment and doing

nothing for the protection of

my property astofi ivanovich flew in

pursuit of the thief and ten minutes later

came back out of

breath and empty-handed he had

vanished completely well there's a beast

of luck costa viavanovich.