alastair macleod 
Boyar Davidovitch 

‘As he got older Boyar Davidovitch got ill. He decided he was dying. He told his house serfs Boris and Ivan to go to the bank and take out all his money.Boris and Ivan came back with a great heavy sack.Boyar Davidovitch grabbed the sack and thrust his hands into it. “What’s this?” he yelled, making a face “No paper roubles?“No your honour. They said there is a paper shortage so it had to be gold roubles.”Boyar Davidovitch ordered Boris and Ivan to send for the carpenter Rublov.The carpenter was instructed by the Boyar to make him a coffin that the Boyar could sit in, like a bed, with a mechanism that would trigger it shut when the Boyar finally died. It was to be so ingenious with locks and bolts so that no one could get it open once it was closed.When it was made Boyar Davidovitch took to his coffin and lay in it with his sack of roubles’