The Three Taytshes

At the start of 1917, Falk is working in a Jewish-owned leather factory deep in the heart of Russia. He is still travelling under a phony name, "Taytsh". This comical-sounding name was a source of considerable mirth among Falks’s co-workers when he was first introduced to them; and a couple of months later, the mirth was re-kindled when another young man showed up at the factory with the same name! Falk soon figured out that the newcomer must have purchased his false identity from the same Lithuanian dealer from whom Falk’s uncles had acquired his own papers. Gradually things settled back to normal, until one day the supervisor ("starshiy") showed up on the factory floor, clutching his sides in convulsions of laughter. Close behind him there followed a tall, dignified-looking Jew with a puzzled expression on his face. From Chapter Fifty-Three: