In the Red (1922); In the Black (1923)

[James A. Landau]

There is an old story about the famous accountant who had a ritual that
baffled his colleagues.  Every morning when he came to his office he would
unlock a desk drawer, glance inside, close the drawer, and lock it again.
Finally the accountant died and his colleagues broke into his desk, to
discover that inside the locked drawer there was nothing except a slip of
paper on which was written "Debits are entered in RED ink."