In this story, Pahom is a peasant living on a small plot of land. At the beginning, he is a content, hardworking man. Unfortunately, he makes the mistake of thinking that more land would make his life better. Pahom says to himself "our only trouble is that we haven't land enough. If I had plenty of land, I shouldn't fear the devil himself"! He acquires more land but becomes unhappy, for no matter how much land he gets, he wants more. He becomes greedier and greedier until he loses control of his life and, in the end, loses everything.