Chichikov's motives spreads, local officials meet to try to discern Chichikov's background and purpose. At one point, the local postmaster interrupts: "He, gentlemen, my dear sir, is none other than Captain Kopeikin!" None of the others in the room are familiar with a Captain Kopeikin, and the postmaster begins to tell his story. Captain Kopeikin was seriously wounded in battle abroad during military conflict with Napoleonic France in 1812. He was sent back to St. Petersburg due to the severity of his injuries, which include the loss of an arm and a leg. At the time, financial or other support was not readily provided to soldiers in such condition as a result of combat wounds, and Captain Kopeikin struggles to pay for room and board with his quickly-depleted funds. As his situation becomes more and more dire, Kopeikin takes it upon himself to confront the leader of "a kind of high commission, a board or whatever, you understand, and the head of it is general-in-chief so-and-so." It is understood that this senior military figure might have the means to assist Kopeikin or put in a word for a pension of some kind. This is followed by a lengthy summary of Kopeikin's meetings and repeated attempts to solicit help from this leader over a period of time. Eventually the postmaster states, "But forgive me, gentlemen, here begins the thread, one might say, the intrigue of the novel" and begins to introduce a band of robbers into the story. At this point, a listener interrupts apologetically, "You yourself said that Captain Kopeikin was missing an arm and a leg, while Chichikov...." The postmaster suddenly slaps himself on the head and admits this inconsistency had not occurred to him at the start and "admitted that the saying 'Hindsight is the Russian man's forte', was perfectly correct." Isaac Asimov and the story of the Shah Guido G. In the collection of stories by Isaac Asimov titled Buy Jupiter and Other Stories, is a story titled "Shah Guido G."<ref>{{cite book |author=Asimov, Isaac |author-link=Isaac Asimov |title=Buy Jupiter and other stories |publisher=Fawcett Crest |location=New York, NY |year=1975 |pages=33–44}}</ref> In his background notes, Asimov identifies the tale as a shaggy dog story, and explains that the title is a play on "shaggy dog". Examples in music Arlo Guthrie's antiwar "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" is a shaggy dog story about the military draft, hippies, and improper disposal of garbage. David