A kopeck for the burying

The man in the cassock takes five steps along the road and stops.

„I’ve forgotten to put a kopeck for the burying,“ he says. „Good orthodox friends, can I give you the money?“

„You ought to know best, you go the round of the monasteries. If he died a natural death it would go for the good of his soul; if it’s a suicide it’s a sin.“

—Anton Checkhov, „A Dead Body“, Ward No. 6 and Other Stories, (New York: Barnes & Noble, 2003), 26.