Setting:
Two friends, Dima (the rational thinker) and Yura (the superstitious one), are walking home from a small grocery store in a quiet Russian neighborhood. Snow lightly falls around them, and they’re bundled up in thick coats. Suddenly, Yura stops in his tracks.
Yura:
Hold on, Dima! Don’t step forward. Look—there’s a 50-ruble note right in the middle of the crossroads!
Dima:
And…? Free lunch?
Yura:
Are you crazy? You never pick up money at a crossroads. That’s how you get followed by bad spirits, or cursed for seven years—or both!
Dima:
Yura, it’s just a banknote. Not some cursed artifact from a horror film. Come on, I’ll pick it up.
Yura: (grabs Dima’s arm)
Don’t! My cousin Lena once picked up a coin at a crossroads in Samara, and the very next week her cat went missing and her boiler exploded. You really think that’s coincidence?
Dima:
Yes, because boilers explode when you don’t service them, and cats are cats. That’s their job—to disappear. I bet Lena’s cat is sunbathing in someone else’s window.
Yura:
You mock, but do you remember that guy in our dorm, Pavel? He found 500 rubles at a junction near the train station. Within a month, he got dumped, failed thermodynamics and chipped a tooth on a frozen pelmeni. Explain that.
Dima:
Yura… that’s just called life. Pavel also drank vodka like it was water and skipped every other lecture. The real curse was his GPA and nutritional choices.
Yura:
Still. Why tempt fate? Crossroads have been known as spiritual gateways in Russia since forever. Babushka used to say that witches leave traps there. Money, bread, even candy! If you touch it, they can trace your soul.
Dima: (laughs)
Yura, your babushka also thought that whistling indoors summons poverty. And yet, I whistled in our kitchen last week, and I still have a job.
Yura:
That’s because I knocked on wood after you did it!
Dima:
Ah, so you’re my secret charm. Good to know. But seriously, if crossroads are spiritual hotspots, how come Google Maps never warns me? “Caution: Paranormal activity ahead”?
Yura: (grinning)
Because even Google’s afraid to mess with Russian folklore.
Dima:
Touché. But listen, I get it—some traditions come from old fears and stories, and they served a purpose. Maybe once upon a time, crossroads were dangerous because people buried things there… or criminals were executed… or they were just sketchy spots. But now? It’s 2025. If a spirit can follow me home because I picked up a 50-ruble note, I say let’s talk—I could use help paying rent.
Yura:
You joke, but what if you do start hearing whispers or seeing shadows? Will you still laugh when Baba Yaga shows up in your dreams?
Dima:
If Baba Yaga shows up in my dreams, I’ll ask her if she accepts online payments.
Yura:
You’re impossible. But fine. Pick it up if you must. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you. And don’t come crying to me when your plants die or your phone stops charging for no reason.
Dima: (bends down and picks up the note)
Deal. If I get cursed, I’ll let you do a whole “I told you so” dance. But if nothing happens, you have to admit that maybe—not definitely, just maybe—there’s no spirit GPS tracking ruble collectors.
Yura:
Hmph. I’ll consider it… if we make it home without being followed by a crow or a three-legged dog.
Dima:
Let’s go, Sherlock. I think I just bought myself a coffee. Want one?
Yura: (suspiciously)
Only if it’s not from a cart parked near a junction.
Science Vs Superstition 
Tell Us What You Think