# Laploshka — Short Fiction character guide

> Laploshka in Short Fiction by Saki.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Laploshka Laploshka, the living Laploshka, the dead Laploshka

**First appearance:** 0026-the-soul-of-laploshka

## Snapshot

A shabby, persistent acquaintance whose small loan becomes a moral obligation that outlasts every reasonable expectation of repayment.

## Who they are

Laploshka is the kind of man who lends money with an air of doing you a favor and then never lets you forget it, appearing at inconvenient moments to remind you of the debt. His poverty is real but his timing is theatrical, and he has a genius for making generosity feel like a trap. He matters because his claim on the narrator's conscience refuses to be settled by mere money, and because Saki uses him to explore how guilt can be inherited like a curse.

## In the story

### [The Soul of Laploshka](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/chapters/the-soul-of-laploshka)

A miserly and entertaining man who dies of grief after the narrator refuses to repay two francs. His ghost haunts the narrator until the money is properly bestowed.

### [The Background](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/chapters/the-background)

Not present in this chapter.

### [The Bull](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/chapters/the-bull)

Laurence is Tom's half-brother, an animal painter who specializes in bulls but after the incident paints only kittens, fawns, and lambkins.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/laploshka
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters