The Nose by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. Short summary

5 seconds

A monk had a very long nose that made him uncomfortable. After years of suffering, he managed to shorten it, but everyone around him started laughing at him.

1 minute

Everyone around him knew about Monk Zenty and his strange nose. His nose was so long that it hung below his lip. The man couldn’t even eat on his own, and during meals the disciples held his nose with a special plank.

The fifty-year-old monk suffered all his life because of the inconveniences of life associated with a long nose. He was also jealous of people and looked everywhere for a remedy for his ugliness. He drank special infusions, smeared his face with unpleasant creams, but nothing helped.

One of his students found an unusual overseas remedy. Nose had to be steamed, trampled feet, and then pull out of it all the fat that will come out. So it was done. And the monk’s appearance became most ordinary.

But from that day on, he noticed that people around him stopped respecting and listening to him. They laughed both at him and at his desire to become like everyone else. The man even began to dream of having his nose back. And one night it did. And in spite of all the discomfort, the monk felt that he had become happy.