The fantastic story “The Destructiveness of Genius” is a philosophical reflection on the issue of genius. The author's imagination depicted a musical genius, giving him the prosaic appearance of a gifted rodent. Everything goes well as long as the game is played “by the rules.” But then, in the middle of Beethoven’s piano piece, a talented variation on a theme sounds, and our ideas about the world threaten to be turned upside down. A simple bet turns into a tragedy, the scale of which will only be revealed after the finale. The rat in the form of a genius and destructive envy - a symbol of the eternal conflict of good and evil - all this will outlive us in eternity. The story is an absolute masterpiece.