The Bet

Themes:

Greed: in the beginning of the story, the lawyer wants the money for personal gain

	by the end of the story, the banker does not want to part with it for the same reasons
	greed even goes so far as to motivate the banker to comtemplate murdering the lawyer

Corruption: this is the major theme expressed in the story

the story is full of man's vices:

gambling	drinking
smoking	murder

all evil man is capable of is represented

by the end of the story, the lawyer has learned how corrupt mankind has become

by staying on and claoming his 2 million dollars, the lawyer is accepting that he too is corrupt

15 years he has learned and been changed to be a moral standard among men

he chooses to leave mankind rather than submit