What Men Live By

What Men Live By is a short story by Leo Tolstoy, first published in 1885.

The story follows a poor shoemaker who encounters a mysterious naked man suffering from the cold and decides to take him home despite his own poverty. The stranger, Michael, begins working with the shoemaker and gradually reveals that he has been sent to earth to learn three essential truths about human life.

Through a series of encounters with customers and strangers, Michael comes to understand what dwells in man, what is not given to man to know, and what men truly live by. Tolstoy uses the tale to emphasize compassion, humility, and the idea that human beings ultimately live through love rather than through self-interest or material security.

"A shoemaker named Simon, who had neither house nor land of his own, lived with his wife and children in a peasant’s hut, and earned his living by his work. Work was cheap, but bread was dear, and what he earned he spent for food. The man and his wife had but one sheepskin coat between them for winter wear, and even that was torn to tatters, and this was the second year he had been wanting to buy sheep-skins for a new coat."

This text is based on the English translation by Louise and Aylmer Maude from the edition What Men Live By, and Other Tales, available through Project Gutenberg.