"Stone Breakers" presents a sharp social contrast, as the narrator watches two Persian laborers breaking rocks in the scorching sun from a comfortable balcony. The workers are intensely tempted by a vendor selling sweet buns (bulki), but must deny themselves this small 5-kopek luxury, painfully aware of their 45-kopek daily wage and their debts . The story is a poignant look at poverty and their fate "to see and not be able to enjoy".