forgives them each time. However, eventually,his greed for his own land overrides any feelings of compassion he has. He becomes so greedy to protect his land that he begins thinking to himself the following:

I cannot go on overlooking it, or they will destroy all I have. They must be taught a lesson. (Ch. 3)

After that point, he begins prosecuting the peasants in court and having them fined, just as he was fined by the oppressive steward.

Not only does he become as oppressive as the steward, his greed leads him to make a costly, blind mistake in judgement. When he sees that some unknown peasant has cut down a clump of lime trees to harvest their bark, he becomes so determined to find out who the guilty culprit is that he wrongly decides a peasant named Simon is the guilty one. He continues to believe in Simon's guilt even though Pahom can find no evidence of the deed around Simon's home. Regardless of lack of evidence, Pahom takes him to court. When Pahom loses the case, he becomes the laughingstock of the village, making his life miserable in the village. Hismisery is caused by his greed.

How Much Land Does a Man Need, is a classic example of the greed inside a man' heart. The issue of how greedy people are, is as old as time. Pahom's story is one of how a man's own greediness ruins his whole life.

Pahom believes that if he can own enough land, he has nothing to fear. He fears the devil, but believes when he can acquire all the land he needs, the devil won't scare him anymore. He is made a deal that he can own all the land he can walk and mark, if he returns to the starting point by sundown. Pahom is so consumed with owning land and beating the devil, he lets the greed in his heart overtake him. He walks the land and starts marking it. The more land he owns, the more greedy he becomes. He makes his neighbors angry, so he decides he needs more land. He attains more and more land to grow his crops, but lets his heart become hardened. Eventually Pahom goes to obtain more land and runs all day in the sun. He marks all the land he wants and runs back just before sundown. Having been in the hot sun all day, Pahom dies from exhaustion. In the end, it is shown that all the land a man needs is enough to bury him in. 

Leo Tolstoy really shows that when a person allows greed to overtake them, then we all fall prey to the devil. When we are never satisfied with what we have, then trying to obtain what we believe will make us happy, usually ends up killing us. This story is all about what greed can do to a person. Tolstoy gave us this story as a lesson about what really lies at the heart of each of us. The greed that Pahom had for possession of land, ends up killing him.

According to the eNotes Summary the basic problem in Tolstoy's story is this:

Pahom can have all the land that he can walk around in a day for one thousand rubles. The one condition is that if he does not return on the same day to the spot at which he began, the money will be lost. 

Pahom has become so greedy for more and more land that he keeps extending his walk to include various attractive sites where there are trees or running water or something else he covets. Then when he realizes it is getting late and he has to go back to the spot where he began, he is already tired and he forces himself to hurry beyond his endurance. He has almost made it back to where the Bashkirs are waiting to welcome him when he collapses and dies of exhaustion and an apparent sunstroke. The moral of the story is that greed is self-destructive. A man should be satisfied with what he really needs. By trying to acquire more land than he can possibly use, Pahom is making land more difficult for others to acquire. He plans on exploiting other people by selling his excess land to them at a profit. His punishment is justly deserved.

"How Much Land Does a Man Need?" centers around Pahom, a poor and greedy farmer who wishes to own an abundance of land, as he has no property of his own. Pahom is convinced that if he possessed land and wealth, he wouldn't have any reason to fear anything—even the Devil. Unfortunately for Pahom, the Devil overhears this proclamation and comes up with a scheme to corrupt him.

As time passes, the Devil provides Pahom with various opportunities to purchase more land. Pahom becomes a landowner and pays off all of his debts. Blinded by greed and power, he becomes very possessive and aggressive toward the neighboring peasants and everyone who comes near his property.

One day, a tradesman (who is implied to be the Devil in disguise) informs Pahom that the Bashkirs, who live far away, might be willing to strike a deal with him. Visiting the Bashkirs, Pahom learns that for just one thousand rubles, he may acquire as much land as he is able to walk in one day. However, he must return to the point where he started by the time the sun sets, or he will lose both the land and the money.

Pahom begins the challenge, and while outlining his plot of land, he walks further and further until he begins to be short on time. Soon, he realizes that he runs the risk of not making it back to the starting point before sunset. Desperate not to lose, he begins to run toward his starting point. Unfortunately, he collapses due to exhaustion and dies just as he reaches the starting point, much to the Devil's pleasure. In the end, the question of the story's title is finally answered: a man needs only six feet of land—enough to be buried in.

Much like another great Russian writer, Fyodor Dostovesky, Leo Tolstoy was a concerned with the ultimate questions of human life: "How should people live?" and "What are good and evil?" Tolstoy's story,"How Much Land Does a Man Need?" is often considered a parable as it is a simple tale based upon ordinary occurrences that presents a moral lesson. In parables, the characters are often considered both for what they are as individuals, and for what they represent in a broader sense.

The character Pahom in Tolstoy's tale is one that illustrates many religious lessons. In that great work of literature, the Bible, there is a verse from the New Testament that exemplifies the theme of Tolstoy's parable:

And he said to them, "Take care, and be on guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. (Luke 12:15)

Not satisfied with working the land of others, Pahom desires to own land himself. Then, when the other peasants cross his land and their cattle eat his grain, he becomes like the steward of the owner of the land he once worked because he has fines imposed upon the other peasants. Thus, he loses his love for his fellow man.

Further, he desires to find land where others will not trespass. So, when he learns of rich land elsewhere, he purchases it. He grows wheat on it and harvests a bountiful crop; however, he wishes to raises more wheat and must find virgin soil, so he rents land. He makes profits for three years, but one year after he and a laborer plow some rented land, there is a dispute, the issue goes to court, and Pahom loses all his labor. So, again he considers how much better it would be if he could have more land that he himself owns.

Finally, he hears a rumor about the land of the Bashkirs, who sell land at a very low price. The night before he departs to negotiate with these people, Pahom has a dream is which the Bashkir Chief watches him mark off his land, and as he does so, he holds his sides that ache from laughter. When Pahom comes close to him, he sees that the chief has hoofed feet and horns: it is the Devil himself. But, when he awakens, Pahom shakes himself from his dream, laughing at his foolishness. 

Having arrived in the early morning at the land of the Bashkirs, Pahom is told that he can have all the land that he is able to walk around in a day for one thousand rubles. The one condition is that if he does not return on the same day to the spot at which he began, the money will be lost. In his desire for a large tract of thirty-five miles, Pahom finds that he has probably gone out farther than he can return before the sun sets.

Though afraid of death, he could not stop. "After having run all that way they will call me a fool if I stop now," thought he. And he ran on and on, and drew near and heard the Bashkirs yelling and shouting to him, and their cries inflamed his heart still more. He gathered his last strength and ran on.

When he arrives just as the sun sets, Pahom falls in absolute physical exhaustion and dies from the stress placed upon his heart. His coveting of other people's land, his animosity toward his fellow man, and his greed for more and more land has caused Pahom to damage his heart and soul, and to push his body beyond its capabilities. By tempting him in his greed, the Devil has destroyed Pahom.

The short answer: just enough to bury his dead body. Though a firm supporter of emancipation, Tolstoy was concerned that many of the newly freed serfs would lose their quasi-mystical connection with the soil. Instead of seeing it as a place to call home, as the location of a thriving community, they would, feared Tolstoy, look at the land beneath their feet as an object, a commodity to be bought and sold.

That's precisely what happens in the case of Pahom. He wrongly thinks that he needs as much land as he can get his hands on in order to lead a happy life. But his insatiable greed leads to his untimely death, far from his ancestral home. Tolstoy presents Pahom's death as a salutary warning against the dangers of rootlessness as well as greed. However, once Pahom's corpse is buried, he will symbolically reestablish the connection with the soil that he lost through his exploitation of land as an economic commodity.

The answer to your question and the title is revealed in the last part of the story when the servant digs a grave long enough to bury Pahom. The grave, which was six feet long, stretched from his head to his heels, and it turned out to be all the land he needed.

Pahom believed all his troubles would be over with enough land. He claimed that he would not fear the devil if he had enough land. Unfortunately, the devil heard Pahom’s statement and set out to destroy him. The devil made it possible for Pahom to acquire some land, but Pahom faced administrative challenges and opted to relocate. In his quest for better conditions, Pahom became greedy and wanted more land. The devil took advantage of Pahom’s weakness and led him to his grave.

At the beginning of Leo Tolstoy's short story, Pahom is a peasant farmer, working the land alongside his fellow peasants and barely making enough money to support his small family. Despite Pahom's humble lifestyle, his wife is satisfied and content. Pahom does not experience a significant amount of stress or hardship but contemplates another way of living when he overhears his wife's sister boasting about the dazzling city life.

Although Pahom agrees with his wife's assessment that they are better off in the country, where there is less temptation, he unwittingly extends a dare to the Devil by claiming that, with enough land, he would have nothing to fear—not even the Devil himself. The Devil accepts this challenge and incites Pahom's greed, which eventually leads to his downfall.

As the story progresses, Pahom makes significant sacrifices to acquire land and gradually transforms into a greedy, unhappy landowner. After purchasing forty acres, he becomes upset at his former peers for trespassing on his land and begins to fine them. To escape the annoying peasants, Pahom then attempts to purchase freehold land away from his home, but he instead decides to travel to a faraway region in order to purchase extensive land from the Bashkirs.

Pahom meets with the Chief of the Bashkirs and agrees to the unique terms of their contract: that, at the price of one thousand rubles, he can have as much land as he can walk around in one day. In order to acquire this land, however, Pahom must return to the starting point of his walk before the sun sets. If he fails to do this, he will receive no land and lose the thousand rubles.

Pahom's greed gets the best of him, as he desires too much land and walks so far that he cannot make it back in time. When he realizes that time is running short, he sprints back to the starting point, desperately hoping he'll arrive just as the sun is setting. Exhausted, Pahom falls and dies upon reaching the spot where he began. Due to his insatiable desire and greed, Pahom pays the ultimate price. At the story's end, it is revealed that "six feet from his head to his heels" was all that Pahom needed.