went well, to return home. A year passed and Yerezhep still had not returned the money to Yelemes. Only three years later did he put four hundred roubles in an envelope, told his wife to set the table, and invited Yelemes and his wife to the house to make amends. During the meal, when the guests had quietened down and a suitable atmosphere prevailed, Yerezhep solemnly placed an envelope in front of the tractor driver, on which was written: ‘Chimkent region, Bugensky district, state farm ‘Karaspan’, Bayzhansay branch, Yelemes Yestayevich Nuraliyev’. Yelemes opened the envelope and, to everyone’s surprise, immediately started counting the money. After counting it, he carefully folded the notes, put them back into the envelope and muttered: ‘I won’t take this.’ ‘Why not?! Yerezhep looked at his guest in amaze- ment. ‘It’s not enough.’ ‘What’s not enough?!’ ‘The money isn’t enough. I won’t take it.’ ‘It can’t be! It’s exactly four hundred!’ Yerezhep, flashing his golden teeth, started to count the money again, but Yelemes stopped him. ‘Don’t bother, there’s four hundred there. But when you took money from me, one tooth cost fifty roubles, and and now it’s a hundred.’ Yerezhep looked at his wife in confusion, but she was in need of help herself. Then he turned his gaze to Yelemes’ wife. The wife sat stony-faced. Yerezhep was speechless. ‘So what you’re saying is… you think I owe you…’ ‘Exactly. You owe me eight hundred roubles. That’s what you’re going to pay me.’ ‘But I took four hundred from you…’ ‘You didn’t just take it, you took it by force with the help of your superiors! I haven’t forgotten how I was dragged into the office like a lamb to the slaughter. You’ll give me 800.’ ‘What are you talking about?! What’s it got to do with me? You were brought here by the workman…’ ‘It doesn’t matter. Did you get your teeth put in with my money? Yes, with my money. Did your teeth go up in price? Yes, they went up! You should have given me the money right away, before the inflation. I won’t take four hundred now. Only eight hundred.’ ‘What would you say if I spent it on something else? That hasn’t gone up in price…’ ‘Then I would have taken four hundred. In short, you can be offended or not, but you’ll either give me back eight hundred roubles