The Wrong Box is a black comedy novel co-written by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne, first published in 1889.

Masterman Finsbury and his brother Joseph are the last survivors of a tontine in which they were enrolled as children along with 35 other young boys.

Having lost the combined fortunes of his three wards in the leather trade, he makes his house over to them, but this still leaves a deficit of £7,800.

Suspecting Michael of concealing the death, he rushes back to London with Joseph and John (Julia having gone on ahead).

John reluctantly agrees to the plan, despite the fact that they can only find a run-down cottage in a dismal location.

Catching a glimpse of Joseph, they avoid him by ducking into the luggage van, where they notice two large packages.

One is a barrel in which Morris has packed what he thinks is Joseph's body; the other is an enormous crate addressed to a Mr Pitman.

Pitman, who is an artist, consults Michael, who is his lawyer, about the unexpected arrival of the barrel and the non-arrival of the statue.

Using assumed names, the two men visit Forsyth and engage him to act in a breach of promise case, sending him on a wild goose chase to Hampton Court.

In order to get rid of it, he rents a houseboat and arranges for the piano to be sent there so that he can tip the corpse into the river.

Michael offers to pay Morris and John the £7,800 that Joseph owes them and to hand them back control of the leather business, the financial situation of which has greatly improved.

Rudyard Kipling, in a letter to his friend Edmonia Hill (dated 17 September 1889), praised the novel: I have got R.L.

[4] The novel was also adapted as a stage musical in 2002, and a studio cast recording of the show was released in August 2013.