I am looking for a short story whose title and author I cannot
remember and whose plotline goes roughly like this: a man, on a bet or
a dare (I can't remember which), voluntarily imprisons himself for
some long period of time  -- I believe in a private cottage on a rich
man's estate, a cottage filled with books. If he succeeds in serving
the whole term, some great prize awaits him -- like he gets part of
the rich man's fortune, something like that. But the surprise ending
of the story is that just days before his sentence is over, the
imprisoned man escapes, presumably because the books he's been reading
have made him so wise that he realizes he doesn't need the money. Do
you know the name and title of this story, and where I might find it
online?

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 03 Mar 2005 11:02 PST

Allegro21 beat me and other researchers to it!

However, perhaps we can still be of service.  Would you like a
formatted version of "The Bet" on the Web, which is not all one long
paragraph?

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Clarification of Question by gotisbrown3000-ga on 03 Mar 2005 11:13 PST

would the formatting cost extra?

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 04 Mar 2005 09:58 PST

The comment by allegro21 (like everything posted in the "Comments"
section) was for free.  You would be charged the $5.00 only if someone
posts an answer in the "Answer" space.

"The Bet" by Chechov.

See:  http://www.writing-resources.com/checkov/chekhov-the-bet.html

wow! radical. thanks. this is my first time on google answers, and
certainly not the last.

would a formatted version cost extra?