If we start just before the break of dawn, Pahom actually begins with a moment of horror. The night before most of the story takes place, he had a dream which prognosticated his own death. However, he dismisses the dream quickly enough, eager to claim his land.
From here, the Bashkirs take him out to the steppes, and Pahom is quickly taken hold of by avarice. He is mainly interested in maximizing the amount of land he can claim. All the while, the day is becoming warmer and he is beginning to tire, but he has become too caught up in his hunger for land to begin the journey back. In the end he overreaches, and he comes to realize this, for he still needs to complete a return circuit before the sun sets. However, even here, his initial worry is about failing the Bashkir's condition and losing the land he had claimed. As he races back, Pahom can feel time running out on him. By that point, he has become fully cognizant of his folly, and he spurs himself onwards, even as the effort is killing him. In the end, he returns to the Bashkirs, only to die in the process.
Pahom's greed is exposed through the agreement he reaches. Per the agreement, he may buy as much land as he can walk around in one day before the sun sets. As the day progresses, he tires and begins to realize that he may have "bitten off more than he can chew" in his quest to obtain as much land as he possibly can. He starts to understand that the beginning point of his walk around the land will be nearly impossible to reach before sundown. He begins to run in an effort to beat the sun and claim his land. He is successful but barely so and dies of exhaustion after the test, which answers the question posed in the title. A man needs enough land to be buried on: a piece about six feet long.
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