Is it wrong to put someone in a box? Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov wondered to himself. No matter how much that person might deserve it? What if there are mice and rats in the box! How horrible . . . to lure one into a box, perhaps drop her shoes inside and then offer to hold it open while she retrieves them then—BAM!—slam shut the lid! Trapped! While she’s gnawed upon by hungry rodents . . .

 But what about Napoleon? A tyrant who nearly conquered all of Europe—shouldn’t someone have put him in a box? I should rather think so, rats or no! I mean, if you know doing something—such as putting someone in a box—is wrong, doesn’t it make it all right if the one who is being boxed is somehow . . . wronger?

 As he approached, slowly climbing the stairway to the fourth floor, Raskolnikov began to feel the twitcherings of nervousness…but why all the fuss, he thought, waving it all away with a laugh. He was out to pawn his watch, after all, nothing more . . .