Nothing is completely riskless—not even staying at home in bed.

These frame tale interludes frequently include transcriptions of Italian folk songs.

[T]he report had already been spread about the country that Shiana was out of his mind; […] that there was a batch of people in every one of the seven townlands cutting splinters of wood to make torches for the night to go in search of him, and that no doubt he would be found stuck head downwards in some hole and drowned, or in some rock-cave, perished with cold and hunger.

For a whitecollar worker who is paid once or twice a month, the ratio of cash to income would be larger.