Two Old Men

Two old men had promised each other, many years before, that one day they would walk together to Jerusalem.

Efim was a well-off peasant, serious and steady. He never drank, never swore and never wasted a kopeck. Elisha was neither rich nor poor. He was a cheerful little man who kept bees, liked a pinch of snuff, sang as he worked and got on with everybody.

For years the journey was put off. Efim always had some business to finish first. But at last, one spring, after the sowing was done, the two friends put their money in their purses, said goodbye to their families, and set off on foot.

The road south

They walked for five weeks. Efim worried all the way. He kept thinking of his farm and his son, and whether things were being done properly at home. He kept feeling for the money pouch hidden under his shirt.

Elisha did not worry. He walked along humming, chatting to people on the road, and when he reached a place where bees were kept, he always stopped for a look.

Eventually they came into a district where the harvest had failed. The people were hungry. Many had sold everything they owned, even their cows and horses, just to buy bread.

One hot afternoon, Elisha was thirsty. "You go on," he told Efim. "I'll just step into that hut for a drink of water, and I'll catch you up."

The hut

Elisha opened the door and stopped.

A man lay against the wall, thin and pale, too weak to rise. A woman lay on the floor, groaning. An old woman lay on top of the stove, and a small boy sat beside her, crying for bread. A little girl crawled about the floor, too weak to cry. The family was dying of hunger and sickness.

Elisha set down his bag. He took a loaf from it, broke it and handed it round. He fetched water from the well. He lit the stove and made a soup. He went into the village and bought flour, salt and oil, and he baked bread.

He stayed the night. The next day he stayed again. Little by little, the family grew stronger. And Elisha learned their story. A bad year had come. They had sold everything they had, and borrowed, and still it was not enough. They had even mortgaged their field to a rich neighbour. Now they had no seed to sow, and nothing to harvest.

Elisha's choice

On the third day, Elisha said to himself, I must go on. Efim is waiting.

But then he thought of what would happen when he left. The food he had bought would run out. Without their field they could grow nothing, and without a cow there would be no milk for the children. They would be back where they started.

He thought of his journey. If I go on to Jerusalem looking for God, he thought, and leave these people as they are, I may lose the God that is in me.

So he stayed. He bought back their field. He bought them a cow, and a horse and cart, and flour enough to last until the harvest. The family wept and called him a saint, and the little girl would not let go of his hand.

Then, early one morning, before anyone was awake, he slipped quietly away.

When he checked his purse on the road, he saw there was not enough money left to reach Jerusalem. So Elisha turned round and walked home. When people asked why, he said only that he had lost his money on the way and had not been able to keep up with his friend.

Jerusalem

Efim waited for his friend at an inn for a while, then went on alone. He travelled by land and sea and reached Jerusalem at last. He visited the holy places and lit his candles. But still he worried, about his money, about thieves, about home.

One day he stood in the great crowd in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. And there, close to the altar, right at the front where the light was brightest, he saw an old man in a coarse coat, with a bald head shining.

It was Elisha.

Efim tried to push through the crowd to reach him, but by the time he got there, Elisha was gone. The next day he saw him again, in the same place, his head shining as if with light. And again Efim could not reach him.

The way home

On his journey back, Efim passed through the district where he had left Elisha. He came to a hut where a family was well fed and the fields were green. They asked him in and gave him food.

Then they told him their story. A year ago, they said, they had all been dying of hunger. An old man had come in for a drink of water. He had stayed and fed them, bought back their land, given them a cow and a horse, and then vanished without telling anyone his name.

Efim listened, and understood.

When he reached home, he went to find Elisha. The little man was in his garden among the hives. He greeted Efim with joy.

"I saw you in Jerusalem," Efim said. "At the front, by the altar."

Elisha only waved his hand and changed the subject. "God's business," he said. "Come and see my bees. They have swarmed so well this year."

Efim did not say anything about the family in the hut. But he understood now that the best way to keep one's vows to God and to do His will is for each person, while they live, to show love and do good to others.

About this story

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910), the great Russian author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, wrote many short, simple stories in the 1880s for ordinary readers, about faith, kindness and how to live well. This version is a shortened, simplified retelling.