"The Death of a Government Clerk" (Russian: Смерть чиновника, romanized: Smert chinovnika) is a short story by Anton Chekhov published originally the Oskolki magazine's 2 July, No.

Both are delicious", Nikolai Leykin, the Oskolki's editor, informed the author by a 29 June letter.

It was included (without the subtitle) into Chekhov's 1886 collection Motley Stories (Пёстрые рассказы) published in Saint Petersburg and featured unchanged in its 2–14 editions (1891–1899).

He spends the evening and the next day fawning before his sneeze victim trying to extract forgiveness, but what he succeeds instead is only bringing out a fit of rage in him.

Shocked, Chervyakov returns home to lie there and die, due to the sheer stress of having endured such horror.