Undertaker Adriyan Prokhorov moves from Basmannaya Street to Nikitskaya to a long-beloved house, but does not feel joy, as the novelty scares him a little. But soon the order in the new dwelling is established, a sign is attached above the gate, Adriyan sits by the window and orders the samovar to be served.
Drinking tea, he plunged into a sad thought, since by nature there was a gloomy disposition. Worldly concerns embarrassed him. But the main concern was that the heirs of the rich merchant merchant Tryukhina, who was dying on Razgulyay, remember at the last minute about him, and not conspire with the nearest contractor. While Adriyan indulged in these thoughts, a neighbor, a German artisan, came to visit him on a visit. He called himself a shoemaker Gottlieb Schultz, announced that he lives across the street, and invited Adriyan to his house the next day on the occasion of his silver wedding. Accepting the invitation, Adrian offered Schultz tea. The neighbors got into a conversation and quickly became friends.
At noon the next day, Adrian with two daughters went to visit the shoemaker. The friends of Gottlieb Schulz, the German craftsmen with their wives, gathered in the house. The feast began, the owner proclaimed the health of his wife Louise, and then the health of his guests. Everyone drank a lot, the fun became noisier, when suddenly one of the guests, a fat baker, offered to drink for the health of those for whom they work. And all the guests began bowing to each other, for all were clients of each other: tailor, shoemaker, baker ... The baker Yurko invited Adriyan to drink for the health of his dead. A general laughter rose, which offended the undertaker.
We parted late. Adrian returned home drunk and angry. It seemed to him that the incident was a deliberate mockery of the Germans over his craft, which he revered no worse than others, because the undertaker is not the brother of the executioner. Adrian even decided that he would invite not his new acquaintances to housewarming, but those whom he worked for. In response, his employee invited him to cross himself. But Adriyan liked this idea.
They woke Adriyan even darker, as the clerk of the merchant, Tryukhina, jumped up with the message that she had died that night. Adrian went to Razgulay, trouble began and negotiations with relatives of the deceased. Having finished business, he went home on foot in the evening. Approaching the house, he noticed that someone had opened his gate and entered it. While Adrian was wondering who it might be, another man came up. His face seemed familiar to Adriyan. Entering the house, the undertaker saw that the room was full of the dead, illuminated by the moon shining through the window. With horror, the undertaker recognized them as their former clients. They greeted him, and one of them even tried to hug Adriyan, but Prokhorov pushed him away, he fell and crumbled. The rest of the guests surrounded him with threats, and Adrian fell and lost his senses.
Opening his eyes in the morning, Adriyan recalled yesterday’s events. The worker said that neighbors came in to inquire about his health, but she did not begin to wake him. Adriyan asked if Tryukhina had come from the deceased, but the worker was surprised at the words about the death of the merchant and told that the undertaker, as he returned from the shoemaker, was drunk and fell asleep, and so on until that very moment. Then the Undertaker only realized that all the terrible events that had so frightened him occurred in a dream, and ordered a samovar to be set up and a daughters called.
