Leo Tolstoy's story Two Old Men tells the tale of two men, Efim and Elisha, who decide that before they die they must make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. After months of planning, they collect what they will need and begin to walk. After a long day on the road, they come to a village that seems deserted. No one is about, and seeing a small hut, they look in to see what has happened. They enter its darkness and smell ... "Two Old Men" is a short story by Leo Tolstoy written in 1885. It is a religious piece that was translated to English by Leo Wiener in 1904. The story is the retold in a sermon by Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast, who concludes his retelling with, "Who really got the goal of pilgrimage ? " The story is included in numerous Tolstoy collections, such as "Twenty Three Tales" (1924) and "Leo Tolstoy's 20 Greatest Short Stories" (2009).