Anton Chekhov is a prolific story teller.  'The Bet' written by him might be summed up in the famous lines of a poem by Richard Lovelace, "To Althea, from Prison," in which the poet says: Stone Walls do not a Prison make, Nor Iron bars a Cage. So what is the story all about? Is it about gambling money on some unpredictable event? Is it about choosing life imprisonment over death penalty? Or is about choosing knowledge over money? You have to listen to the story to understand that deep philosophy.