and the ceiling was seconds from floating off into the sky. Just then, three more men entered the hall, rushing from different sides, they barely woke up and raised the snorers to their feet. The chiefs, shaking their heads, looking at them with dull eyes, as if seeing before them Munkir and Nankir, the angels of death demanding an answer, could not understand anything. Then, somehow understanding the essence of the matter, they muttered: “Okay, go, we’ll be right there,” and as soon as the people left the hall, they again fell on their beds. When the chiefs, clutching their heads every now and then due to the fogginess and noise – found them- selves near the seven-story buildings, it was already noon, and the people, losing patience, were seething with anger. At that point, the first test had begun. “You are all ignoramuses!” Pashat said after listen- ing to the irritated people. “You are wild people and are not accustomed to living in the city. Barely having moved in, you already slaughtered many sheep, started cleaning your offal in the toilet bowl, and flushed all your garbage down the very same toilet. For violating the rules of the communist hostel, I should be fining you all right now.” “Is that really how they do things in the city? Having barely moved in, we now have to pay fines?” Old Meldesh shouted from his balcony, squinting his eyes. “Do you think we’re a bunch of idiots? First and fore- most, you need to be held accountable for all of this.” Suddenly he leaned out over the railing and looked up where he could see the head of a girl leaning over the railing of her balcony on the fifth floor, he shouted to her: “Hey! Tell your stupid father not to go to the toilet, and not to flush. Are you all deaf up there or something, even if we tried to hit your door with an axe, you probably wouldn’t open it, would you?” The girl silently slipped into the apartment. After a long noisy trial, they went around all the apartments. Everything turned out to be true. They decided to invite a commissioner over from the district. Prior to the arrival of the commission, they agreed not to flush the toilet, not to use the bath, not to open the taps in the kitchen. The commissioner arrived