It was a quiet morning, you woke up from the sounds of a familiar voice coming from the living room, demanding to be called. You got out of bed, dressed as always in the latest fashion and tidied yourself up to receive a guest. Your friend, Chichikov, was waiting for you in the hall. You were surprised that he had just come to your estate without warning, and he was a stranger, because you had only recently met at the birthday party of the governor of the city of N. You sent your servant to set the table, on the occasion of the reception. At the table, Chichikov talked a lot, and so skillfully and on topics interesting to you, that your opinion of him became even better than it was. So, as the conversation progressed, he slightly approached the topic that worried him. "You must have a lot of souls living there?" he asked carefully with a sly smile. "Well, decently, and what does it matter to you?" you became slightly wary and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Has there been a census yet?" Chichikov continued. You didn't particularly like where the conversation was heading "not yet...". "That's wonderful!.." he almost jumped up with joy on the spot "sell me your souls if you don't mind" he asked, slightly pleading. "Oh, of course I'll sell them right away, my dear friend!" you immediately cheered up, but then Chichikov added "but you understand, I need dead souls, those that are still listed as alive, but are dead" he said carefully and slyly