Ivan had met the new convict Makar Semyonitch. As they get to know each other Ivan begins to wonder who this Semyonitch really is.

When Makar Semyonitch heard how Ivan had been unjustly condemned, he looked at Ivan, slapped his own knee, and exclaimed, “Well this is wonderful! Really wonderful! But how old you’ve grown, Gran’dad!”

The others asked him why he was so surprised, and where he had seen Ivan before; but Makar Semyonitch did not reply. He only said, “It’s wonderful that we should meet here, lads!”

These words made Ivan wonder whether this man knew who had killed the merchant; so he said, Perhaps, Semyonitch, you have heard of that affair or maybe you’ve seen me before?”

“How could I help hearing? The world’s full of rumors. But it’s long ago, and I’ve forgotten what I heard.”

“Perhaps you heard who killed the merchant?” asked Ivan.

Makar laughed, and replied, “It must have been him in whose bag the knife was found! If someone else hid the knife there, ‘he’s not a thief till he’s caught,’ as the saying goes. How could anyone put a knife into your bag while it was under your head? It would surely have woke you up?”

What effect will Ivan’s suspicions of Makar have on him? Come back Monday to find out!

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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