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Sergei was full of anger and turned away from the beggar.

“This is dishonesty, my dear sir!” he cried angrily. “This is swindling — I

shall send the police for you, damn you!”

Swindling: cheating a person of money

He screamed that the beggar was dishonest. He was a cheat and Sergei

would hand him over to the police.

“Sir!” he said, laying his hand on his heart, “the fact is I was lying! I am

neither a student nor a schoolteacher. All that was fiction. Formerly I

sang in a Russian choir and was sent away for drunkenness. But what

else can I do? I can‟t get along without lying. No one will give me

anything when I tell the truth, what can I do?”

Fiction: falsehood

The beggar confessed that he was lying. He was neither a teacher nor a

student. He had been a singer in a Russian group and was removed due

to his drinking problem. He lied because people would not give him alms

if he told them the truth.

“What can you do? You ask what you can do?” cried Sergei, coming

close to him. “Work! That‟s what you can do!

You must work!”

Sergei screamed at him and said that he could work instead of lying.

“Work — yes. I know that myself; but where can I find work?”

The beggar said that he knew he should work but there was no work for

him.

“How would you like to chop wood for me?”

Sergei asked if he would chop wood for him.