Ivan has been stopped and questioned about the death of the merchant whom he visited with the night before. His things are about to be searched. What will the police officer find?

Ivan, the police officer, and the soldiers entered the inn. The soldiers and police officer opened Ivan’s luggage and searched it. Suddenly the officer drew a knife out of a bag, crying, “Whose knife is this?”

Ivan looked, and seeing a bloodstained knife taken from his bag, he was frightened.

“How is it that there is blood on this knife?”

Ivan tried to answer, but could hardly utter a word, and only stammered: “I–I don’t know–not mine.”

Then the police officer said, “This morning the merchant was found in bed with his throat cut. You are the only person who could have done it. The house was locked form the inside, and no one else was there. Here is this bloodstained knife in your bag, and your face and manner betray you! Tell me how you killed him, and how much money you stole.”

Ivan swore he had not done it; that he had no money except the eight thousand roubles of his own, and that the knife was not his. But his voice was broken, his face pale, and he trembled with fear as though he were guilty.

The police officer ordered the soldier to bind Ivan and put him in the cart. Ivan crossed himself and wept. His money and goods were taken from him, and he was sent to the nearest town and imprisoned there. Enquiries as to his character were made in Vladmir. The merchants and other inhabitants of that town said that in former days he used to drink and waste his time, but that he was a good man. The trial came on: he was charged with murdering a merchant from Ryazan, and robbing him of twenty thousand roubles.

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How quickly life can change! Find out what happens next to Ivan. See you on Monday!

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Story adapted from “God Sees the Truth, But Waits” in Walk in the Light and Twenty-Three Tales by Leo Tolstoy