The Idiot by Alexandr Kuprin. Short summary

5 seconds

A young guy meets a relative and her sick son, Stepan. When the boy runs out of money and has nothing to eat, no one he knows helps him. And only the blissful child gives him all his savings.

1 minute

The soldier Zimin tells his companion how in his youth he came to St. Petersburg to enroll in the Academy of the General Staff. On his father’s advice he met his distant relative Alexandra Ivanovna Gracheva. She had a son, a sickly boy, a blissful, idiotic boy.

Stepan was 29 years old, but he looked 16. He could utter literally a few words. And he was very fond of his money — pennies, which he hid from everyone.

The boy became very attached to Zimin and Zimin tried to work with him in the hope that he would help him cope with his illness.

The young man did not get into an educational institution and ran out of money. He didn’t even have anything to eat with. He tried to borrow from acquaintances, but they refused him everywhere. In desperation, he went to a relative, but she herself was in need. And idiot boy Stepan gave him all his wealth.

Zimin remembered this lesson for the rest of his life and felt very sorry for all the sick and blessed. And believes that such people are worthy of sympathy and are actually very reasonable.