This is a brief morality tale–the kind of thing that just isn’t written (or much read) any more. It’s an outdated form, so it’s hard to know what to say about it.
In brief: Avdeyev, a local merchant who served as an auditor for the local bank, is untroubled when the bank’s managers are thrown in jail for fraud. Sure, he was a lazy auditor; sure, he never really looked at the books; sure, he had no idea what the state of the bank’s finances were. But who, he asks, would ever fault an auditor for laziness, inaction, and ignorance? In this case, however, the authorities bring him in for punishment.
If this story has a main fault, it is that it telegraphs its ending practically from the first. Obviously Avdeyev is at fault; obviously he’s at risk. The reader (me, anyway) turns the pages dutifully, awaiting Avdeyev’s inevitable comeuppance. The end.
At least it’s a very short story! But not as pithy as the old saying, “Pride goeth before a fall.”
READ THIS? READ THAT!
A similarly simple story is “A Slander,” which is also more fun to read because the main character is officious and silly, as opposed to Avdeyev, who is objectionably arrogant and annoying to have to read about.
A Chekhov Circus 