The Two Old Men

Leo Tolstoy's story Two Old Men tells the tale of two men, Efim and Elisha, who decide that before they die they must make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. After months of planning, they collect what they will need and begin to walk. After a long day on the road, they come to a village that seems deserted. No one is about, and seeing a small hut, they look in to see what has happened. They enter its darkness and smell ... "Two Old Men" ("Два старика") is a short story by Leo Tolstoy written in 1885. It is a religious piece that was translated to English by Leo Wiener in 1904. The story is the retold in a sermon by Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast, who concludes his retelling with, "Who really got the goal of pilgrimage?" The story is included in numerous Tolstoy collections, such as "Twenty Three Tales" (1924) and "Leo Tolstoy's 20 Greatest Short Stories" (2009).