the money. A second message arrives from Burgess, explaining that he intentionally kept the Richardses' claim from being read as a way to return an old favor Edward had done for him. The buyer has the fake gold coins stamped with a message mocking his political rival and distributes them throughout the town, allowing him to win an election for a seat in the state legislature. Edward and Mary become distraught over their situation, growing paranoid and starting to think Burgess has revealed their dishonesty to other people in the town. Their anxiety causes them both to fall ill, and Edward confesses their guilt shortly before he and Mary die. The checks are never cashed. With its reputation irreparably damaged, Hadleyburg decides to rename itself and remove one word from its official motto (originally "Lead Us Not Into Temptation" to "Lead Us Into Temptation"). The story ends with the comment, "It is an honest town once more, and the man will have to rise early that catches it napping again." Adaptations The story was adapted into a 39-minute television film as part of the PBS American Short Stories series, directed by Ralph Rosenblum and featuring performances by Robert Preston, Fred Gwynne, and Frances Sternhagen. It first aired on March 17, 1980. The ending is both altered and shortened for the film. A DVD version was released by Monterey Media on November 16, 2004. A radio adaptation of the story was featured on the CBS Radio Mystery Theater on January 9, 1976, starring Fred Gwynne and Earl Hammond. Another adaptation of the story, featuring the Persky Ridge Players and filmed at a theater in Glasgow, Montana, had a VHS release on October 2, 2000. The Jiangsu Huai Opera based their opera, entitled The Small Town, on the story. The opera is directed by Lu Ang, written by Xu Xinhua, and stars award-winning actors Chen Mingkuang and Chen Cheng in lead. After a two-year tour of China, the company is set to perform the piece around Europe in 2019. Oberlin connection Twain had given a lecture in a church at Oberlin College in 1885, and it was unpopular with the academic audience. The Hadleyburg story may allude to this event. Scholar Russel B. Nye wrote that the story "was Twain's way of taking revenge on the small town" after being jeered at and rejected by the academic audience. Writes Nye, "the story