What do you think is a more humane punishment: being forced to live in a prison cell the rest of your life, or ending it instantly through capital punishment? In the story "The Bet" by Anton Chekov, a lawyer agrees to a bet to be imprisoned by a banker for 15 years for a chance to receive 2 millions. He does this to show the banker that life imprisonment is better than capital punishment. Over the next 15 years the banker gains a large amount of debt and begins to fear that if the lawyer wins the bet, it will result in the banker losing all of his money. However, the lawyer escapes right before he was to receive the money. He did this because he realized how insignificant the value of money actually is. In the bet the lawyer learned the more valuable lesson. This is because he learned that no amount of money can make up for experiences in your life, and it will end up corrupting your life. In the story the banker and lawyer each learn valuable lessons. The lawyer learned how insignificant the value of money is and how corrupted the world has become because of it. This is shown in the note that he wrote to himself saying that he despises the money that he thought would once bring him paradise. This realization in turn ends in him leaving before the time is over. From the bet the banker learned how being careless with money can ruin your life and make you do immoral things. The banker's carelessness with money and gambling in the stocks caused him to fall into a large amount of debt. The fear that he would lose all his money money from the lawyer winning drove him to try killing the lawyer. Through the bet the lawyer learned how insignificant money is while the banker learned that being careless and gambling has consequences. After the bet both characters gained something that made them better people.Through the bet the lawyer was able to discover the true meaning of life. He realized that In the end he did not want anything to do wi