Thus a waiter bringing me the bill long after I received my drink and paid for it, too. If an inspector showed up and caught me without the magical piece of paper, the café would be in trouble. This stops no-one from all the funny stuff, but the proliferation of paper is there to prop up the notion that Croatia is a country based on law and nothing but law. “Paperology” is all there is to it, though. The clever term, which is used in all sorts of contexts, raises the ubiquitous practice to the level of science. Tacitus would love this country, no doubt. In his wisdom, he would take it as an exemplar of his adage connecting corruption and laws.

Addendum (December 11, 2016)

The same story unfolded today, albeit in Motovun rather than Zagreb, where the original piece was written so many years ago. The waiter brought me the bill long after I received my drink and paid for it, too. By way of an apology, he explained that something was wrong with the cash register he had at hand, which is why he had to go to another one some way away. I knew the waiter well, and so I laughed out loud. Without mentioning Tacitus by name, I explained why I was laughing so gleefully. As I claimed in this piece, the Roman historian would love Croatia to bits, no doubt whatsoever. It is his maxim incarnate, no less: corruptissima res publica, plurimae leges…