: The rich man decides to play a trick on the poor tramp, turning his life into an empty expectation and believing that he will succumb. Eight years later, a ruined rich man meets a tramp who managed to become a doctor.

London, winter of 1920. Two wealthy middle-aged men left an expensive restaurant and saw a poorly dressed man of about twenty-five lying unconscious on the sidewalk. The men decided that the man was drunk or dead, but he came to his senses and said that he had lost consciousness from hunger.

One of the men, Stylton, decided to play a trick on the poor man. He took the beggar to the tavern, fed and listened to his story. An orphan John Eve came to London from Ireland, where he was raised in a family forester. When Yves turned fifteen, his patron died, and the adult children of the forester went around the world.

Yves had to leave home. At first he worked with a farmer, then - with a coal miner, a sailor, a servant in a tavern. At 22, having had pneumonia, Yves “decided to try his luck in London,” but because of unemployment he could not find work and became a tramp.

Forty-year-old Styleton, a millionaire warehouse owner, was bored.He believed that people are the best toys, and decided to make such a toy from a homeless tramp. He offered Ive ten pounds a month, provided that he would rent a room on one of the main streets and every evening, from five to twelve, he would put a lamp with a green lampshade on the window. At this time, Eve should not leave the house and communicate with anyone.

Stilton said that the lamp would serve as a signal for some mysterious “people and deeds,” which Yves were not supposed to know about. He told him to write a demand letter with a mysterious cipher and promised that one day there would be people who would make Yves rich.

The next evening, a green lamp was lit in the window of one of the central streets, and under the window Stilton explained to his friend his uncomplicated plan, which he was very proud of. He believed that a person who was waiting for something unknown would certainly go mad or suck, and he wanted to prove it experimentally.

A toy ... a toy from a living person - ‹...› the sweetest food!

Eight years later, a dirty, emaciated old man in rags, who broke his leg while falling on the "black staircase of a dark brothel," was brought to a poor hospital in London for the poor. The fracture caused a rupture of blood vessels, inflammation began, and the leg had to be amputated.

Recovering after the operation, the old man saw a doctor at his bedside, who turned out to be John Yves. Eve recognized Old Man Stilton. He said that he had gone bankrupt, having lost on the stock exchange, and for three years now he was begging.

Eve lit a green lamp for several years and, from boredom, read everything.On a whatnot in a room he rented then, he found an old book on anatomy, and in front of him "a fascinating land of secrets of the human body" was discovered. After sitting over the book all night, Eve decided to become a doctor.

One evening, Eve saw Stilton on the street, who, looking at the window with a green lamp and not noticing John, said that he was almost ruined, felt sorry for the money thrown away on the stupid idea and called Yves "a classic fool." Eve wanted to hit Stilton, but remembered that due to his “mocking generosity” he could get an education, and silently passed by.

If desire is strong, then execution will not slow down.

Yves no longer received money, but he managed to buy a lot of books, and a neighbor student helped him prepare for exams and go to medical college. Shocked, Stilton said that he had not come to Yves' window for a long time, but it seems to him that there is still a green lamp "illuminating the darkness of the night."

Stylton asked for forgiveness from Yves, and he offered the old man a job - to write down the names of patients in the hospital outpatient clinic, and advised him to light at least a match, going down the dark stairs.