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Chapter 11

There Was No Money.

There Was No Robbery

T

HERE was one point that struck everyone in Fetyukov-

itch’s speech. He flatly denied the existence of the fatal

three thousand roubles, and consequently, the possibility of

their having been stolen.

‘Gentlemen of the jury,’ he began. ‘Every new and un-

prejudiced observer must be struck by a characteristic

peculiarity in the present case, namely, the charge of rob-

bery, and the complete impossibility of proving that there

was anything to be stolen. We are told that money was sto-

len — three thousand roubles but whether those roubles

ever existed, nobody knows. Consider, how have we heard

of that sum, and who has seen the notes? The only person

who saw them, and stated that they had been put in the en-

velope, was the servant, Smerdyakov. He had spoken of it to

the prisoner and his brother, Ivan Fyodorovitch, before the

catastrophe. Madame Svyetlov, too, had been told of it. But

not one of these three persons had actually seen the notes,

no one but Smerdyakov had seen them.