"The Case of the Stick" (Portuguese: O caso da vara) is an 1891 short story by Brazilian writer Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, published first in the Gazeta de Notícias and republished in the book Páginas Recolhidas. It is an ironic depiction of slavery in Brazil (abolished in 1888) and selfishness. The story's title is sometimes translated into English as "The Punishment Case", or "The Cane"; it appears under the latter in A Chapter of Hats and Other Stories, a collection of Machado's short stories published in Great Britain by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2008. Source: Wikipedia (en)