“The Publican and the Pharisee” on the Electric Train.

 “The Publican and the Pharisee” on the Electric Train.

“I am taking the Moscow-Petushki electric train. A homeless man from the Kursky station gets on. He has a black eye. His face is swollen. He looks about thirty. He looks around and begins:

- Citizens and gentlemen, I haven’t eaten for three days. Honestly. I’m afraid to steal because I don’t have the strength to run away. But I’m very hungry. Give me as much as you can. Don’t look at my face - I’m drinking. And I’ll probably drink whatever you give me!” - and walks along the carriage. Our people are kind: they quickly threw the homeless man about five hundred rubles. At the end of the carriage the homeless man stopped, turned to look at the passengers and bowed at their feet:

- Thank you, citizens and gentlemen! May God bless you all!

And suddenly, a bad man sitting at the last window, who looked a bit like the vegetable grower Lysenko, only he was wearing glasses, suddenly shouted at the homeless man:

- You bastard, you bastard, you ask for money, you ask. And maybe I have nothing to feed my family. And maybe I was fired three days ago. But I don’t beg like you, you bastard.

Hearing this, the homeless man suddenly takes out everything he has from his pockets (probably two thousand in different bills with change) and gives it to the man:

- Here, take it. You need it.

- What? - the man is stunned. -

Take it! You need more! And they will give me more. They are good people! - He put the money in the man's hands, turned around, opened the doors wide and entered the vestibule.

- Hey, stop! - the man jumps up and runs into the vestibule with the money in his hands.

The whole carriage, without saying a word, fell silent. For about five minutes we all listened carefully to the dialogue in the vestibule. The man shouted that people were scum. The homeless man insisted that people were kind and wonderful. The man tried to return the money to the homeless man, but he wouldn't take it back. It all ended with the homeless man leaving and the man being left alone. He wasn't in a hurry to return. He lit a cigarette.

The train stopped at the next station. Passengers got off and got on. The man, having finished his cigarette, also returned to the carriage and sat down in his seat by the window. No one paid him much attention. The carriage was already living its normal life. The train stopped occasionally. Someone got off, someone got on.

We passed about five stops. This was my station. I got up and went to the exit. Passing the man, I glanced at him quickly. The man was sitting, turned to the window and was crying.

Priest Dmitry Vidumkin