The Best Woman in My Life

Forty-year old clerk Láďa got divorced some time ago and then was married again, to an attractive woman. The young wife cannot keep the house in order but wants to dress up and have an easy-going life. Láďa is often broke and has to borrow money. He thus devises a crafty plan to come into money. Taking a few days off in the office, he leaves for a small town. Here, he visits the managers of all the local stores and orders them to hand their sales over at the post office by noon so that the banknotes can be examined, since false one-hundred crown notes have reportedly appeared in the town and its surroundings. He is to carry out the inspection with the help of a microscope at the local post office. Here, however, his plan receives the first crack. The old postmaster fell ill and is substituted by a resolute young woman, Mrs Kaplanová. Láďa's behaviour inspires confidence in the new postmistress and the inspection can begin. Láďa examines the banknotes with a non-functioning microscope, selecting out "false" banknotes from the genuine ones. The pile of those he is going to take away already amounts to ninety thousand crowns, but Láďa finds himself unable to rob the credulous woman. He decides to steal the money from a businessman who did not earn his one thousand crowns fairly but gets into a quarrel with him and must run away from both him and the police. He returns to Prague devastated - but where is he going to get the needed money? He is helped by his ex-wife, "the best woman in his life".