A soldier is returning from a war one day and gains a special magic sack after showing kindness to some old men. This sack allows him to pull whatever he wants in with just a command, which he uses to great effect to drive out some wicked devils from the tsar's palace. He forces one of these devils into becoming his servant, eventually gaining a magic cup that allows him to see Death.
This episode provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: The devil who becomes a servant to the soldier is far more polite and sincerely helpful than you would expect from a devil who had his foot broken off and stolen.
- Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: With a generous helping of The Problem with Fighting Death. Making Death afraid of you results in an awful eternal life, and capturing Death in the first place is a good way to get God angry at you and refuse you entry into Heaven.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The soldier is able to outsmart a bunch of devils with some magic cards and then captures them in his sack, beating the crap out of them and making one of them his servant. He also captures Death in his sack, though this ends up being a bad idea.
- Downer Ending: The only story in the original show to have a purely sad ending. The soldier becomes completely unable to die due to Death's fear of him, eventually outliving everyone he loves. He is eventually able to find Heaven on his own, but he is refused enter due to his grievous sins. The soldier is then forced to return to earth as sad and broken wanderer.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: The soldier is convinced to let Death loose when he meets a bunch of incredibly old folk who are waiting to die peacefully of old age, but are forced to continue existing in their dying bodies. The soldier then fully realizes this personally when Death refuses to claim him, resulting in the soldier outlasting his loved ones and becoming an immortal and withered old man himself.
