What are the clauses of the bet and what happens when the bet is over?

When the banker and the lawyer agree to make a bet, they stipulate the following conditions:

1. For the duration of the bet (fifteen years), the lawyer shall live in a lodge in the banker's garden and shall not have any contact with the outside world. This includes hearing a human voice and receiving newspapers and letters.


2. The lawyer shall have access to books, musical instruments, wine, cigarettes and is permitted to write letters.


3. The lawyer will receive these goods through a little window in the lodge.


4. The lawyer shall be in confinement for "exactly" fifteen years: that is, "from twelve o'clock of November 14, 1870, and ending at twelve o'clock of November 14, 1885."


5. If the lawyer tries to break any of these conditions, he immediately forfeits all of the prize money.

At the end of the fifteen years, however, the lawyer agrees to leave the lodge a few hours early. He deliberately makes himself the loser of the bet and does this because he is no longer interested in winning the money. This comes as a great relief to the banker who would have become bankrupt, had the lawyer succeeded.