If you drop bread or crumbs, you risk poverty and hunger

Setting: A small kitchen in a Moscow apartment. It’s snowing lightly outside. Two friends, Misha (the superstitious one) and Andrei (the rational thinker), are having tea and sharing a loaf of fresh rye bread. A small crumb falls to the floor.

---

Misha: (gasps and bends to pick it up, making a cross over his chest)
Oh no, no, no. Bread on the floor means poverty is coming. We need to kiss it and feed it to the birds or the spirit of hunger will visit.

Andrei: (chuckling)
You dropped one crumb, Misha. I don’t think that’s enough to summon financial ruin.

Misha:
Don’t mock, Andrei. My babushka always said, “Bread is sacred. Waste it, and you’ll eat dust.” She once slapped my cousin for throwing away the crust. The next year, he had to sell his TV.

Andrei:
Maybe he just bought a bad TV?

Misha:
Or maybe the spirits noticed his wastefulness and decided he didn’t deserve entertainment.

Andrei:
Come on, you can’t seriously believe there’s a ghost accountant floating around judging our carb habits.

Misha:
Not a ghost—more like… ancestral forces. Bread was life in the old days, Andrei. If you wasted it, it did mean poverty. The belief came from experience.

Andrei:
Exactly. Back then. When a bad harvest could mean starvation. Superstition was a reminder to be careful with food. Now, we’re not in 1850 anymore. If I drop bread, I sweep it up. I don’t need to feed it to invisible ancestors.

Misha: (frowning but amused)
You’re not feeding ancestors. You’re showing respect. You think all traditions are just nonsense?

Andrei:
Not all. But if you believe every dropped crumb is a financial omen, you’ll drive yourself mad. I accidentally knocked a whole baguette off the counter last week. You know what happened?

Misha: (dead serious)
What?

Andrei:
I bought a new baguette. And then I got a bonus at work. So clearly the universe wasn’t watching my breadcrumbs.

Misha: (mock horror)
You mocked the bread gods and got rewarded? That’s worse! That’s a test!

Andrei:
Okay, Misha, riddle me this: If crumbs on the floor bring poverty, what about toast crumbs in your bed?

Misha:
That just brings ants.

Andrei: (laughing)
See? You do believe in cause and effect. Just not always the scientific kind.

Misha:
Listen, Andrei. You grew up reading science magazines. I grew up watching my grandfather bless the oven every time he baked. These things feel real to me.

Andrei: (nodding)
I get that. And honestly, respecting food is important. But don’t confuse habit with magic. Traditions should comfort, not control.

Misha: (grudgingly)
Maybe. But let me have my crumb-kissing rituals. They cost nothing and make me feel better.

Andrei: (smiling)
Fine. Kiss the crumbs. But if you ever find me chanting over a spilled latte, please intervene.

Misha: (grinning)
Deal. But if you lose your wallet this week, I’m telling everyone it’s the baguette.

Andrei:
Then I’ll blame the gluten.