| A | B | 
| Main characters | Lawyer & Banker | 
| Setting | Russia, Autumn | 
| Terms of the bet | Lawyer spends 15 years in jail and receives 1 Million rubles | 
| Prisoner does this to occupy his time | Reads, plays music | 
| Banker planned to win the bet | Kill the lawyer | 
| Banker hid the prisoner's note | to prove he didn't kill the lawyer & the lawyer gave up the money | 
| Prisoner moves from novels of light character to classics | Lawyer gets bored with "easy reading" and wants something with more depth of character | 
| Prisoner looks much older than his years | Lawyer has been inside for 15 years | 
| Prisoner left the house 5 minutes early | to prove a point - the wisdom he'd gained was more valuable to him than the money | 
| Prisoner now hates the money | because he wasted so much time putting so much importance on it | 
| Banker hates himself | he read lawyer's letter and is ashamed that he almost killed him | 
| Story ending is ironic | Lawyer stays 15 years and still doesn't get the money |