guts?’ ‘Why? What kind of stupid question is that? ‘Ye- rezhep looked at the tractor driver as if he was mad. ‘So they don’t burn their arses when they drink hot tea.’ The guests sitting around them roared deafeningly. ‘Why aren’t you laughing?’ Yelemes asked. Yerezhep pursed his lips, showing great dignity. ‘Your jokes wouldn’t even make an idiot laugh…’ ‘Right. That’s why you’re not laughing…’ This implied that Yerezhep was an idiot… ‘We should punch him,’ Yerezhep warmed up to himself. ‘No, a fight is inevitable. But in front of all the people! In front of the director! So be it. Honour comes first! It’s a shame, of course, but we’ll have to fight. Although it would be better elsewhere, you can’t offend the owners of the house…’ ‘Yeah, they’ve completely forgotten what a fight is these days. It’s all quiet now,’ one of the elders said dreamily. ‘That’s right.,’ the second elder supported him. ‘It’s just like sitting in a cemetery,’ the elder praised the wedding. ‘Before, every dastarkhan was always fights, police…’ He looked at the police officer nestled at the head of the table, as if he were a highly respected man. ‘Yes, that’s right,’ the senior lieutenant said, and no one could tell whether there was more joy or regret in his voice. ‘No fights, no other disturbances of public order,’ the storekeeper interjected, glancing at the stubby neighbourhood officer. ‘I wonder what you’re going to do now?’ ‘We’ll find something,’ the police officer smiled meaningfully, to which the storekeeper reacted instantly. ‘We should call the district,’ he said to the director, ‘and ask for a reduction in the number of district policemen on our state farm…’ The thought seemed so desirable that he laughed with pleasure, but soon stopped when he saw that he was laughing all alone. Senior Lieutenant Seksenbayev listened to the laughter of the storekeeper and grinned again… The guests began to squirm in their seats, calming down after the storekeeper’s joke, and all of them looked meek and gallant. ‘What a bunch of goody-goodies,’ Yerezhep said fiercely. ‘And when you dig into each of them, they all have sins behind them… There, the policeman is sitting like a virgin in the bathhouse, and how about remembering his behaviour after my accident…!’ After the accident Yerezhep threw himself at the policeman’s feet and started complaining that he had hit not a