The chapter opens with a description of a gift from a merchant. It's a set of plates with a story behind them. The story is that one of the plates was broken, and the servant who took care of it died. The merchant tells the narrator that the ghost appeared to him as he slept, and after that, she appeared again. The narrator doesn't like the idea of putting the plates on display, because he's never read a story about ghosts or demons before. He's also not a big fan of the merchant's stories. He tells the merchant that he'd never even entertained the idea that there were ghosts. He also tells him that the merchant has read a lot of fairytales, and that merchants have read too many of them. He says that he has never read any of these stories before, and he wonders if the merchant would like him to put these on display. He asks the merchant where he can put the plates, but the merchant says he can't, because there's nothing he can do about it. He goes to sleep, and wakes up to find that the plates are missing. He tries to stitch them back together, but they're all gone. He screams, "I'm going to cut myself on the shards" . He grabs a piece of the plate and tries to cut it out, but it's too big for him, so he cuts it in half. The shards are gone, and now he can play with them.