"What Men Live By" is a short story written by Russian author Leo
Tolstoy in 1885. It is one of the short stories included in his
collection What Men Live By, and Other Tales, published in 1885. 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. Before winter Simon
saved up a little money: a three-rouble note lay hidden in his wives
box, and five roubles and twenty kopeks were owed him by customers in
the village.