Not far from the shore lay a boat at anchor; it rocked from side to side, and something was creaking in it as though moaning.
"How am I to free myself from such a life as this ?" reflected Foma, staring at the boat.

"And what occupation is destined to be mine?
Everybody is working." And suddenly he was struck by a thought which appeared great to him: "And hard work is cheaper than easy work! Some man will give himself up entire to his work for a rouble, while another takes a thousand with one finger." He was pleasantly roused by this thought.

It seemed to him that he discovered another falsehood in the life of man, another fraud which they conceal.

He recalled one of his stokers, the old man Ilya, who, for ten copecks, used to be on watch at the fireplace out of his turn, working for a comrade eight hours in succession, amid suffocating heat.
One day, when he had fallen sick on account of overwork, he was lying on the bow of the steamer, and when Foma asked him why he was thus ruining himself, Ilya replied roughly and sternly: "Because every copeck is more necessary to me than a hundred roubles to you.

That's why!" And, saying this, the old man turned his body, which was burning with pain, with its back to Foma.
Reflecting on the stoker his thoughts suddenly and without any effort, embraced all those petty people that were doing hard work.