Gortsby learned what he thought he already knew. Don't be
too trusting. Gortsby in his own cynicism was already on to people like the young man.
Still, the young man tricked Gortsby into giving him his
money.
The real lesson here is that people are often too
trusting by nature. Gullible is a word that comes to mind. Naive is another word that
fits this story. Truly, the cynical man Gortsby already stated that the defeated come
out at dusk. He was already aware to be on guard. In fact, he concluded that the young
man was a con artist because he could not produce a bar of
soap.
Ironically, the bar of soap produced itself and
turned the cynical man's cynicism into trust. Oh, how a small bar of soap can change
one's thinking into a cleansing thought.
Again, Gortsby
learns a lesson. No doubt, Gortsby has every right to be cynical. All too often, we as
trusting human beings get burned. The lesson is that the human heart desires to trust
unconditionally. It is in human nature to give one's heart away. Even though Gortsby
prides himself on understanding the defeated ways of mankind, he too fell for the con
artist. He was all too ready to pour out his sympathy with nothing to gain in return.
Some consider it an admirable quality. Saki would consider it
foolish.
The reader learns a lesson right along with
Gortsby. Don't be too trusting. To borrow a cliche: if it sounds too good to be true, it
probably isn't. Don't talk to strangers, especially right before it gets
dark.
Saki, in all his infinite wisdom, through men like
Gortsby and the young man, teaches a lesson on the danger of believing everything people
say:
Saki
came to the short story as a satirist and never averted his eye from the darker side of
human nature, a place where not only social ineptness, pomposity, and foolishness are
rooted but criminality as well.
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