04/04/2025
The young Mr. Johann Cornies
On one occasion after the Peskkov building, where all the government records were kept, had caught fire suspiciously, and burnt to the ground, a corrupt official taught that he could trap Johann to pay himself a large sum of rubles, “Young Johann, we do not have any records of you paying your lease for three years, you need to pay your lease to the Tzar.” “No Sir, I have always maintained my obligations to the Tzar. Let me go to my home and bring the proof of my payment.” Johann jumped into his buggy and returned to the office, in front of everybody who had large sums of money demanded from them also. “Good sir, these are my receipts. See they are all stamped with the red imperial seal.” Within a day, everybody knew of the story of the stamped imperial receipts and it became widely known that nobody could ensnare or entrap Johann because he kept good records of all the payments he had made over the years to the crown and every week to his workers.
