# Mark the Rich — Russian Folktales character guide

> Mark the Rich in Russian Folktales by A. N. Afanasyev.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mark

**First appearance:** 0019-mark-the-rich

## Snapshot

A merchant of uncountable wealth who drives beggars from his door on the very night God is meant to be his guest, then schemes to destroy the child prophesied to inherit it all.

## Who they are

Mark the Rich covers his courtyard in velvet and brocade for a divine guest, then has a ragged old man thrown out the back way before the Lord can arrive. When a dream foretells that a poor peasant's newborn will inherit his domains, he adopts the boy only to abandon him in a snowdrift. His greed is the tale's moral center, and every cruelty he commits returns to test him.

## In the story

### [Mark the Rich](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/russian_folktales_se/chapters/mark-the-rich)

A wealthy, ungracious merchant who refuses charity to the poor and tries to kill a prophesied peasant boy.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/russian_folktales_se/characters/mark_the_rich
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/russian_folktales_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/russian_folktales_se/characters