An Inadvertence by Anton Chekhov. Short summary

5 seconds

A man inadvertently drank a shot of kerosene. He is sure he is going to die. But in the morning he feels healthy. His sister-in-law thinks he survived because the kerosene was of poor quality.

1 minute

Peter Petrovich Strizhin returns from a christening. He drank at the visit and at home he still wants to drink a shot of vodka.

He quietly opens Dashenka’s sister-in-law’s cupboard and drinks a shot. The man faints.

When he comes to, he feels pain and a rasping pain in his stomach, head and eyes. From the smell, he guesses that he has drunk kerosene.

The man wakes Dashenka in terror, complaining that he has drunk kerosene. But she scolds him for going into her closet without asking.

Strizhin tries to see a doctor, but cannot find one. He seeks help at a drugstore, but does not receive it there either.

He writes a suicide note, goes to bed in the full belief that he is dying.

In the morning he wakes up healthy. The man tells his sister-in-law that the poison did not work, because he leads a correct life.

Dashenka thinks that he survived because the kerosene was of poor quality.