In Law

A doorkeeper stands before the law. A country man comes to this doorkeeper and asks to enter into the law. But the doorkeeper says that he cannot allow him entry now. theMan thinks about it and then asks whether he will be allowed to enter later. "It is possible," says the doorkeeper, "but not now." Since the gate to the law is open as always and the doorkeeper steps aside, the man bends down to look inside through the gate. When the doorkeeper notices this, he laughs and says: “If you are so tempted by it, try to go in despite my prohibition. But notice: I am powerful. And I'm just the bottom doorkeeper. But doorkeepers stand from hall to hall, one more powerful than the other. Even I can't stand the sight of the third. ”The country man did not expect such difficulties; The law should always be accessible to everyone, he thinks, but when he now takes a closer look at the doorkeeper in his fur coat, his large pointed nose, the long, thin, black Tatar beard, he decides to wait until he gets the Gets permission to enter. The doorkeeper gives him one Stool and lets him sit down to one side of the door. He sits there for days and years. He makes many attempts to be admitted and tires the doorkeeper with his requests. The doorkeeper often conducts little interrogations with him, asks him about his homeland and many other things, but these are indifferent questions like the great gentlemen ask, and in the end he keeps telling him that he cannot let him in yet. The man who cares about his journey with a lot equipped, uses everything, no matter how valuable, to bribe the doorkeeper. The latter accepts everything, but says: "I'm just assuming so that you don't think you've missed something." Over the years, the man has watched the doorkeeper almost continuously. He forgets the other doorkeepers, and this first seems to him the only obstacle to entry into the law. He curses the unfortunate coincidence, inconsiderate and loud in the first few years, later, when he gets old, he just growls to himself. He becomes childish, and since he has also recognized the fleas in his fur collar in the years of studying the doorkeeper, he also asks the fleas to help him and to change the mind of the doorkeeper. Eventually his eyesight becomes weak and he does not know whether it is really getting darker around him or whether his eyes are just fooling him. But now he recognizes a shine in the darkness that inextricably breaks through the door of the law.He doesn't live long now. Before his death, all the experiences of the whole time were gathered in his head on a question that he had not yet asked the doorkeeper. He waves to him because he can no longer straighten his frozen body. The doorkeeper has to lean deeply down to him, for the difference in size has changed much to the detriment of the man. “What else do you want to know now?” Asks the doorkeeper, “you are insatiable.” “Everyone strives but according to the law, "says the man," why is it that in all these years nobody has asked for admission but me? " he yells at him: “Nobody else could get in here, because this entrance was only for you. I'll go now and close it."