Leo Tolstoy’s Short Story, ‘How Much Land Does a Man Need?’

What we have right now is enough. “A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning,” 1636, by Peter Paul Rubens. Public Domain

Do you ever wish for more money, another car, a new house, more friends? Though such wishes may be harmless, perhaps we should focus on what we do have. For only through deep gratitude will we be happy.

In his short story “How Much Land Does a Man Need?“ Leo Tolstoy tackles the importance of gratitude by contemplating the life of Pahom, a peasant. Pahom desires more land so that he can be completely happy, but his desire for more proves endless: He is never thankful for what he has.

Just a Little More

Pahom lives with his family in a village, where they work the land for their living. Though they have little, he is thankful: “We peasants have no time to let any nonsense settle in our heads. Our only trouble is that we haven’t enough land. If I had plenty of land, I shouldn’t fear the Devil himself!” He just wishes he had a little more land.

Soon this desire for more land is fulfilled. A lady nearby wishes to lease her land, so Pahom quickly offers to rent a portion from her. Deciding on 40 acres, he pays her in advance. However, Pahom becomes dissatisfied with renting only 40 acres, and he wishes for just a little more.

A stranger, passing through, tells of a place beyond the Volga where many peasants are moving: “They had ... twenty-five acres per man granted them. The land was so good ... that the rye sown on it grew as high as a horse.” Tempted by this image of better and more land, Pahom decides to break his lease and move his family to this new place.

Upon reaching this new settlement, Pahom makes an offer and rents 125 acres. He then builds all the necessary buildings and buys cattle. All of the new land and possessions make him “ten times better off than he had been.” Tolstoy says that perhaps the Devil is watching.

Pahom is satisfied. Or is he? While he experiences the novelty of working new land, he feels satisfied. But after the novelty wears off, he again desires just a little more—and not just to lease. He wants his own freehold land and successfully bargains for 1,300 acres at 1,500 rubles from another peasant.

Less Is More

Yet within the same day of buying these 1,300 acres, Pahom meets another peasant who tells him of a wonderful deal he made with the Bashkirs. This peasant obtained 13,000 acres for 1,000 rubles. What a deal! The amount of land depends just on how much Pahom “can go round on [his] feet in a day.” He begins to walk the land, and perhaps the Devil is watching with a smile.

In this tale, Tolstoy exposes unquenchable desire when enough is never enough. He proves, as Marcus Aurelius says in “Meditations”: “Take full account of what excellencies you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.” What you have right now, though it might be less, is enough.

Whenever you begin to desire more than you have, remember that “just a little more” often proves endless. Pursue gratitude, for it supplies the heart with happiness in the littlest of things.

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