Ostap Bender is a famous literary character, the protagonist of Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov's novels «The Twelve Chairs» (1928) and «The Golden Calf» (1931). In the first novel, Ostap Bender claims to know «four hundred relatively honest ways of relieving the public of their money». In the second novel, however, the number grows to «five hundred relatively honest ways of relieving people of their money». The phrase became a catchphrase in Russian culture and is often quoted to describe a resourceful con man operating on the edge of the law. Bender called himself «the great strategist» and «an ideological fighter for cash».
Ostap Bender and the Law
