'It seems to me that to send him abroad would be like punishing a pike by throwing it into the water,' said Levin; and only afterwards remembered that that thought, apparently given out as his own, and which he had heard from his acquaintance, was taken from one of Krylov's fables, and that his acquaintance had repeated it from a feuilleton.
— Io penso che mandarlo all’estero è lo stesso che punire un luccio lasciandolo andare in acqua — disse Levin. Soltanto dopo si ricordò che questa idea, sentita da un conoscente e data per propria da costui, era di una favola di Krylov, e che il conoscente l’aveva ripetuta ricavandola dall’articolo di un giornale.