Is the banker wise?

Gamblers have a term for the kind of bet a man is sure to lose. They call it a "sucker bet." What characterizes a sucker bet is that one bettor knows the outcome in advance. For example, a gambler might spend his evenings reading the world almanac and pick out certain facts that others might dispute, then bring them up as general questions to start an argument leading to making a bet. Good questions are: "What is the biggest state in the United States? All right, what is the second-biggest state? What is the longest river in the world?" Never bet with a man who is holding the answer-book in his hand!
There are some people who could tolerate solitary confinement for fifteen years and others, many others, who could not. The lawyer likes the bet the banker proposes because he knows he could spend fifteen years alone if he had a few things to keep his mind occupied. It is the banker, probably drunk on vodka, who initiates the bet:
"It's not true! I'll bet you two million you wouldn't stay in solitary confinement for five years."
The lawyer not only leaps at the proposal but he offers much better terms.
"If you mean that in earnest," said the young man, "I'll take the bet, but I would stay not five but fifteen years."
Why does the lawyer volunteer to stay in solitary confinement for three times as long as the banker proposes? Undoubtedly because the lawyer really wants to make that bet and doesn't want the banker to change his mind. The bet has not been formalized. So far it is only talk. A lawyer is a lawyer. He wants it all spelled out. If the banker didn't believe the younger man could spend five years in solitary confinement, he certainly wouldn't believe he could spend fifteen. The lawyer is calling the banker's bluff in front of a large group of their mutual acquaintances. The banker can hardly back down at this point. But he is making a sucker bet, because the lawyer knows his own character and knows what he can do. As a matter of fact, the lawyer, who is undoubtedly an introvert who enjoys solitude, actually likes the idea of having someone provide him with a cosy cottage, food, wine, books, a piano, and comfortable furniture for fifteen years. No doubt he has always wanted the time to devote to study, meditation, and writing. Perhaps he feels instinctively that it is something his soul craves.
So the banker, for all his worldly wisdom, is walking straight into a sucker bet. He will not only lose his two million rubles, but he will have to provide what appear to be luxurious accommodations and gourmet meals for his prisoner, as well as going to considerable expense to obtain some six hundred esoteric books in several different languages.