At the same moment his face resumed its original mocking expression.

He went on drinking tea.
"There have been a great many of these crimes lately," said Zametov.
"Only the other day I read in the _Moscow News_ that a whole gang of false coiners had been caught in Moscow.

It was a regular society.

They used to forge tickets!" "Oh, but it was a long time ago! I read about it a month ago," Raskolnikov answered calmly.

"So you consider them criminals ?" he added, smiling.
"Of course they are criminals." "They?
They are children, simpletons, not criminals! Why, half a hundred people meeting for such an object--what an idea! Three would be too many, and then they want to have more faith in one another than in themselves! One has only to blab in his cups and it all collapses.
Simpletons! They engaged untrustworthy people to change the notes--what a thing to trust to a casual stranger! Well, let us suppose that these simpletons succeed and each makes a million, and what follows for the rest of their lives?
Each is dependent on the others for the rest of his life! Better hang oneself at once! And they did not know how to change the notes either; the man who changed the notes took five thousand roubles, and his hands trembled.