Every day you learn something new

Came across a fascinating book at Toys'Я'Us yesterday. It's called "Three questions" and claimed to be based on a story by Leo Tolstoy. From the blurb I gathered that young Nikolai in a typical Russian intelligentsia fashion was suffering from a case of "рефлексия". I don't know any other group subject to this condition so will use a Russian word for it. Anyhow, Nikolai was tortured by such questions as "When is the best time to do things?" and "What is the right thing to do?" He hasn't quite gotten to "Whose fault is it?" yet but he seems to be well on his way. In his difficult journey he was helped along by three friends: Sonya the heron, Gogol the monkey, and Pushkin the dog. At this point I must admit my mind boggled and I carefully put the book down and slowly walked away. But ever since then I've been tortured by a question of my own, which story by Tolstoy could this possibly be based on?

Рабочее

Контрактор, взятый, чтобы помогать мне в лаборатории, не справившись с заданием, которое я ему дала, написал следующее, в переводе, но практически дословно: "Ты не могла бы сама попробовать, а то мне надоело с этой проблемой возиться." Он еще жив, но только едва-едва.