The magic envelope affair

The magic envelope affair is the recurring financial scam by which the Opera Ghost, Erik, extracts his monthly allowance of twenty thousand francs from the Opera managers Firmin Richard and Armand Moncharmin, replacing the real banknotes with fake Bank of St. Farce notes and ultimately stealing the money directly from Richard's coat-tail pocket. The affair exposes the managers' mutual suspicion, culminates in the safety-pin incident, and ends only when Erik voluntarily returns the money after renouncing his marriage to Christine Daae.

The First Theft and the Bank of St. Farce

The affair began when the managers found on their table an envelope addressed to "Monsieur O. G. (private)" with a note instructing them to put twenty notes of a thousand francs each into it, seal it with their own seal, and hand it to Mme. Giry, who would "do what is necessary." Richard and Moncharmin, hoping to catch the blackmailer, complied, placing the genuine notes in the envelope and handing it to the box-keeper, who placed it on the little shelf in Box Five. The managers, along with Gabriel and Mercier, watched the envelope without losing sight of it for a second, yet when they finally opened it, they found the twenty real notes replaced by twenty notes of the "Bank of St. Farce"—flash notes drawn on a fictitious bank. Moncharmin wanted to send for the commissary of police, but Richard objected, saying, "Don't let us make ourselves ridiculous! All Paris would laugh at us. O. G. has won the first game: we will win the second." The managers suspected each other, with Moncharmin troubled by suspicions of Richard himself, who occasionally took fanciful whims into his head.

The Second Payment and Mme. Giry's Confession

The second payment fell on the same day as the disappearance of Christine Daae. A note from the ghost reminded them the money was due, instructing them to do exactly as before. Richard counted the twenty thousand-franc notes in front of Moncharmin and put them in the envelope without closing it. When Mme. Giry was summoned, Richard questioned her about her relations with the ghost, and she revealed that the ghost had promised her that her daughter Meg Giry would become empress in 1885, a prophecy that made her believe in him completely. Under pressure, Mme. Giry confessed the trick: the ghost had given her a duplicate envelope, sealed with the managers' own seal, which she substituted for the real one, hiding it up her sleeve. She then slipped the real envelope into Richard's coat-tail pocket when she brushed against him behind the scenes. The managers, realizing the simplicity of the scheme, had Mme. Giry demonstrate her technique, and Richard recalled the evening when the under-secretary of state for fine arts had been present and she had pushed against him.

The Safety-Pin Incident and the Final Theft

Determined to catch the thief, Richard and Moncharmin arranged that Richard would repeat his exact movements while Moncharmin watched his coat-tail pocket. Mme. Giry slipped the envelope into Richard's pocket and was immediately locked away by Mercier. Richard then walked backward, bowing to nobody, while Moncharmin followed close behind, pushing away anyone who came near. Locked in their office, Moncharmin, suspecting Richard of a practical joke, demanded a safety-pin to fasten the notes to Richard's pocket. He knelt down, verified the notes were genuine, pinned them carefully, and sat watching. At the stroke of twelve, when they prepared to leave, Moncharmin felt the pin but not the notes—the pocket was empty, the pin still in place. Richard accused Moncharmin of theft, and Moncharmin, in despair, handed the safety-pin to Mercier when he knocked at the door.

The Return of the Money and Erik's Motive

A few days after the disappearance of Christine Daae, when the managers had made an appointment with M. Mifroid to tell him the whole story, they found on Richard's table a large envelope inscribed in red ink "WITH O. G.'S COMPLIMENTS," containing the full sum of forty thousand francs. Richard was at once of the opinion that they must be content with that and drop the business, and Moncharmin agreed. The Persian later explained that Erik wanted money and, thinking himself without the pale of humanity, employed his extraordinary gifts to prey upon his fellow-men; his reason for restoring the forty thousand francs was that he no longer wanted it, having relinquished his marriage with Christine Daae and everything above the surface of the earth. The narrator, investigating the managers' office, discovered a trap-door within two inches of the desk-chair, through which a hand could come and dexterously fumble at the pocket of a swallow-tail coat—the way the forty thousand francs went and the way they were returned.